New signing at Red Bull Salzburg of Austria, Samson Tijani Okikiola has received a warm and pleasant welcome message from the club, whose media unit enthused that their coach and players will be able to get the best from the former Golden Eaglets’ captain, megasportsarena.com reports.
While Tijani spoke of his happiness at completing a transfer from Collins Edwin FC of Lagos to the Austrian Bundesliga giants, Salzburg added that they were excited with their ability to sign on the defensive midfielder, who earlier agreed a pre-contract with the team in February and was officially presented to the media on Thursday afternoon.
The contract was eventually sealed after Tijani turned 18 and the deal is billed to run until May 31, 2025 in a squad where he should feel at home playing alongside the Nigerian-born trio of Karim Adeyemi, Bryan Okoh and Chukwubuike Adamu.
He earlier traveled to Austria before the lockdown and participated in some friendly matches with Red Bull Salzburg’s feeder team, FC Liefering, with which he will be playing officially in the lower division of Austrian football for the 2020/21 season.
The defensive midfielder, who caught the eye when he scored twice in Nigeria’s opening match at last year’s FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brazil and became an instant transfer target, despite his inability to take the Eaglets beyond the second round of the tournament, said he is delighted to finally sign his first professional contract.
Tijani said he was elated with the deal and declared how appreciative he was, as he declared: “I am so grateful to sign for Red Bull Salzburg. I’m so grateful for that and I’ll be so grateful if you guys support us and just be with us. It is not that easy. I hope the fans will support us and be with us in this journey, which will not be easy.”
Salzburg added in their welcome statement: “The 18-year-old feels particularly comfortable in the role of the six and is characterized by his dynamic and uncompromising style of play. He has already displayed his quality in ten appearances for the U17s in his home country, with which he moved up to the semi-finals of the Africa Cup and the round of 16 of the World Cup.”
