There are a number of promising young Irish players making waves at the moment, but few can match the goalscoring pedigree of Mipo Odubeko.
Having honed his craft as a young player at Crumlin United and St Jospeh's, he would make a huge impact after moving to Manchester United. He would even score 35 goals during the 2018/19 season as a 16-year old.
He moved to West Ham in 2019 search of a clearer path to first team opportunities, something that is now coming to fruition. Having suffered through a couple of injury issues over the last 12 months, the 18-year old would make his debut for the club in the FA Cup victory over Stockport last month.
However, a positive coronavirus test has limited his opportunities since then.
Odubeko is now back in training, and speaking about the Ireland youth international this week, manager David Moyes said the striker will likely be given a chance to impress over the next couple of months.
He’s been training with the first team but his biggest problem is he just got back from injury and he had to isolate.
My biggest problem is I haven’t seen much of him over the last three months because he had a really bad hamstring injury but he’s back training and I’ve been quite impressed by him daily. He’s getting closer but I just need to see a bit more of him.
He scored a couple of goals (against Southampton Under-23s). I watched the game and I’ve been pleased with him. If the opportunities came along where I felt there was a chance to introduce him in some way, I wouldn’t be against doing so.
West Ham sold striker Sebastien Haller to Ajax in the January transfer window, and considering they did not sign a replacement, it had been speculated that Odubeko would fill this slot in the squad.
Considering his goalscoring pedigree at underage level, and Ireland's troubles in front of goal, we will be hugely interested in seeing how his career progresses.
SEE ALSO: Ajax Have Just Committed One Of Football Manager's Cardinal Sins
