The Diamond Football Academy chief, Emeka Amajiriaku, has confirmed that 18 year old African, Kelechi Nwakali (midfielder and Nigeria Under-20’s international) will officially move to England to become a member of Arsenal Football Club for a relatively small fee of £3 million.
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Nwakali announced that he would be moving to the Emirates earlier this year in March for a five year deal. Many other clubs fought for him, such as Chelsea, Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Bar but Nwakali jumped at the chance to play for the Gunners, saying that it had been his dream to play for Arsenal from when he was a young boy. Nwakali is excited to move to Arsenal tweeting ‘New Life Begins @Arsenal.’
Kelechi Nwakali is well known as a young up and coming footballer. He captained Nigeria to glory at the Under-17’s World Cup last summer and was named player of the tournament which is something that a few accomplished footballers have achieved such as Cesc Fabregas and Toni Kroos. Nwakali is now a member of Nigeria’s Under-20 team and recently played with them in a Africa Under-20 Cup of Nations qualifier, which they lost, which delayed his transfer completion. Even though Nwakali is being transferred to Arsenal, it is not likely that he will appear on their first team for quite some time due to his lack in experience and inability to get a work permit.
This means that Arsenal officials may have no option but to place Nwakali on a loan to Belgium most likely.
Another African set to move to the Premier League is Portuguese national team footballer (with roots from Angola) William Carvalho, who is currently playing for Sporting Clube de Portugal. Chelsea are keen to bag the player
as a back up choice after having lost out on getting Roma’s Radja Nainggolan. After his excellent performance for Portugal at the Euro’s 2016, Chelsea will have a hard time competing with other clubs for Carvalho as Everton are also out to steal him for themselves. Both teams are at equal footings at the moment and it is unsure who will win the transfer battle at the moment but we will soon find out.
N’Golo Kanté is a footballer of African roots who is currently in the Premier League and is on the move within the league from title holders Leicester City to Chelsea. Kanté plays for the French national team and was with them in the Euro 2016 tournament, he is also Chelsea’s second signing this summer after Belgian striker Michy Batshuayi joined the team from Marseille. Kanté is keen to join Chelsea telling BBC Sport “I am so happy to have signed for one of the biggest clubs in Europe. It’s a dream come true for me,” he said.
