Former Chelsea youngster Oladapo Afolayan has joined West Ham for an undisclosed fee.
The 21-year-old joins the Hammers from National League side Solihull Moors following a spell with Toronto FC in Canada.Embed from Getty Images
"It’s a dream come true," the youngster, who will start life at the club working under Terry Westley in the Under 23s. "I started out with Chelsea and was there until I was 15, then my family moved to Canada.
When we moved back, I studied civil engineering at Loughborough University before the opportunity arose to join Solihull and play in the National League and it was something I couldn’t turn down.
"Now, the opportunity has come to join a Premier League club and 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."
Meanwhile Westley admitted that he was looking forward to developing Afolayan's talents. "Oladapo is an interesting player on many levels and we are delighted that he has chosen to continue his footballing education with us," he said.
"With a number of other clubs interested, 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 was snapped up by West Ham after a years with Moors, for whom he has scored 16 goals in 38 appearances - the last of which came against Dagenham last weekend.
Last year he became the first Solihull player to join the Jamie Vardy V9 Football Academy - a scheme pioneered by the Leicester and England striker for the benefit of non-league players wishing to become full time professionals.
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