West Ham United, late on in the January transfer window, have captured the signature of highly rated young attacker Oladapo Afolayan.
The 21-year-old was brought from Solihull Moors in the National League, where he has scored 11 goals in 29 league appearances, as the Birmingham side look to stay clear of the drop into the National League North and regional football.
He was previously in the youth academy at West Ham’s London rivals Chelsea, before his family moved to Canada and he was part of the academy at Toronto FC.
While at Stamford Bridge, he was in a team that featured an attack of himself, Tammy Abraham and Dominic Solanke.
He will join Terry Westley’s U23 squad and Westley had this to say about Afolayan (via West Ham United):
He is aggressive, has great pace and the knack of scoring goals, which he has done regularly in his first season in senior football.
With a number of other clubs interested in signing Oladapo, we felt we could not wait until the summer to make our move and that bringing him to West Ham now was too good an opportunity to miss.
Afolayan spoke about his move to the Hammers.
It’s a dream come true.
West Ham is one which has always given youngsters opportunities to come through, as we have seen this season, so I’ve come here to get into the first team and make a name for myself.
