West Ham’s new summer striker signing Luka Belic burst onto the scene, as his valiantly fought efforts were rewarded with a last gasp penalty at Upton Park. The Development Squad subsequently drew 2-2 against Newcastle’s U21s, coming back from behind. Terry Westley put his new striker on at half-time, and will have been delighted with the response.
The 19-year-old was brought in from Serbian top tier side OFK Belgrade, albeit on a one-year deal, as the Academy staff continue to monitor the progress he makes throughout the season. Whilst it was well reported that the first team were in the hunt for a forward, the same applied to the U21 outfit. Devante Cole was taken on trial but it didn’t work out, so Belic was brought to the Boleyn Ground as an alternative. There is an option to extend Belic’s deal for a further year too.
He was thrown right into the deep end, in front of a packed home crowd as it was free admission into Upton Park on the evening. His teammates were starting to tire, making it difficult to show any real attacking prowess with Westley’s boys mostly on the back foot for the majority of the encounter. However, his hard work, characterised by the amount of times he tracked back to help out with defensive duties, was rewarded right at the death as the referee pointed to the spot.
Belic had patiently held the ball up inside the box, whilst he waited for several fatigued Hammers to join in with the attack. A neat little turn led to a Toon defender being clumsy and sticking a leg out, and Belic won the spot-kick. Martin Samuelsen, another new purchase over the summer, buried it into the back of the net and West Ham got their first academy points of the season.
That quick turn of pace is hopefully something we will see more often from Belic at Rush Green. Having been capped at U19 level for the Serbian national side, whilst also eligible for Belgium, he certainly possesses potential. The striker was extremely excited to join the club, as he told the official club website earlier in the year:
‘It’s a dream come true for me and I’m looking forward to playing games and scoring a lot of goals. I’m already loving it here! I’m going to go step by step, work hard and play well for the U21s. I’m looking forward, firstly, to playing for the U21s and then, hopefully, my dream is to one day play for the first team. I think it’s going to be great here at West Ham. They’re going to help me a lot and I plan to help the team a lot too. My job is to score goals and hopefully, one day, when I play for the first team I will score goals.‘
He added: ‘That’s the thing that I like the most and that’s what the fans can expect. Terry told me a lot of great things about the club. He showed me a video of how the stadium’s going to look next season and I told him that I’m hoping that next season I will play at that stadium. I’m hoping that’s going to happen.‘
