English Premier League side Brighton and Hove Albion won the race for signing of highly rated Nigerian teen sensation Zadok Yohanna from Swedish side AIK.
Yohanna emerged as one of the most wanted teen in Europe at the moment after a whirlwind start to his career with Swedish side AIK. A host of teams came for his signing but Brighton beat all comers to agree a fee worth £21m.
His rise is coming less than a year after leaving Nigerian Academy Ikon Allah FC based in the northern city of Nigeria called Kaduna.
What many didn’t know is that he was dropped from the U17 team of Nigeria and later the U20 team, the same year that scouts in Sweden came for him.
” Yohanna was dropped from the U17 team and one year later the U20 team. That same year after he was dropped by coach Aliyu Zubairu he was picked by scouts from AIK. It was a huge battle for his signature but they won because they had a better plan for him”, a member of Ikon Allah FC told OwnGoalNigeria.com in an exclusive chat.
Explaining the decision to drop the 18 year old from the Nigerian U17 team two years ago, one of the coaches said he was very young at that time and not physically ready like the other players picked ahead of him.
” Yes they ( Zadok Yohanna and Mubarak Suleiman of Salvia Prague) were a part of our U17 team three years ago, but they didn’t make the team due to two factors that is common with players at that level’, a backroom staff of the team revealed in an exclusive chat.
” First and foremost they were really young around that time. They were like babies but the talent was there for all to see just that physically they weren’t there. Then we had other players who were ahead of them in their positions”, he stated.
