Arsenal of England new kid on the block, Zachariah (Zach) Awe is eyeing a historic debut with The Gunners’ main team in the UEFA Europa League, following confirmation of his first professional contract with the London-based side, megasportsarena.com reports.
Awe, who was born on January 9, 2004, finally pulled off the much-expected signing at Emirates Stadium, having joined The Gunners at the age of eight, following which the tall and physically endowed center back was included in The Gunners’ B-squad for the European contest.
The 6ft 4in tall youngster, who was born in Greenwich and attended Thomas Tallis School in the Blackheath neighborhood, is highly rated at the north London club, where he made his debut for their under-18 squad against Southampton as a schoolboy and got his maiden appearance in the English Premier League 2 during a 6-0 win over Blackburn Rovers last November.
He could now be in line to debut in Europe’s second-tier clubs’ competition, after being added to Arsenal’s Europa League squad’s B-list for the knockout rounds, ahead of their game against Benfica of Portugal on Thursday.
Along with Awe, Arsenal’s coach, Mikel Arteta added left-back Tolaji Bola, thereby making both Nigerian-born youngsters eligible for action in the continental terrain, as they have been on The Gunners’ cards for an uninterrupted period of two years since their 15th birthdays.
While Awe joined The Gunners at as an under-8, after he was snatched from the grasp of fellow-London-based EPL side, Crystal Palace, Bola began his Arsenal career as a nine-year-old scholar and, now 21, he has been added to the roster after returning from a loan spell at Rochdale in England’s League One, where he spent the first half of this season.
Bola and Awe have been allocated jersey numbers 39 and 79 respectively for this season’s UEFA Europa League’s knockout rounds, as they join Miguel Azeez, Folarin Balogun, Arthur Okonkwo and Ryan Alebiosu, who had all earlier been included in Arsenal’s B-list.
They joined up with the main squad in training ahead of this past Thursday’s first leg against Benficaon neutral ground at Stadio Ol impico in Rome, Italy, while the second leg will be staged at Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis in Athens, Greece on February 25.
