West Ham United youngster Divin Mubama was singled out for praise after scoring twice in Saturday’s 5-0 Premier League U18 victory over Aston Villa, via the club’s official website.
There are good weekends, and then there is this.
While Michail Antonio was leading David Moyes’ high-flying Hammers to a 1-0 victory over bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur, the club’s next generation set about proving that the future is as bright as the present.
Dimitri Halajko’s U23s turned on the style with a 6-0 thumping of Manchester United on Saturday – talk about a miserable 24 hours for the Red Devils.
While the U18s didn’t quite match that tally, they did hit the back of the net five times when Aston Villa came to town.
Do West Ham have a future star in Divin Mubama?
Two of the goals in a thumping victory were put away in typically ruthless fashion by Mubama, the 17-year-old birthday boy from Canning Town who has now scored four times in his last five games since returning from injury.
“It’s not only great to have Divin back on the pitch, but also in and around training sessions as well,” beamed Gerard Prenderville, the assistant coach of West Ham’s U18 side.
“I’ve coached him from a young age and he obviously loves to score goals, but he works really hard on it as well. To get him in and around the box, back firing and fully fit, is a real plus for any side.
“It was a great result, but overall, a fantastic performance.
“The main thing for me was the whole team’s performance – from the goalkeeper right through to the centre-forwards, everyone worked really, really hard.
“You don’t see many clean sheets in U18s football, so the players can especially be pleased to keep their first clean sheet of the season, which is a real plus.”
Mubama, who also set up one of West Ham’s five goals against Villa, recently made his debut for the club’s U23 side at the age of 16.
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