Fulham’s 16 year old Ryan Sessegnon has been the subject of interest from top flight clubs, but should he make the move? Former Arsenal, Chelsea players and a current Real Madrid one are examples to be wary of.
Fulham’s Ryan Sessegnon
According to The Daily Mail, Premier League clubs Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City are all keeping tabs on 16 year-old Fulham full-back Ryan Sessegnon, after the English youngster made his debut against Leeds last week. Cottagers fans will be hoping to hang onto such an exciting prospect, but the starlet is bound to be intrigued by the thought of playing for some of the country’s elite. So – should he heed the words of his boss Slavisa Jokanovic, who is desperate to keep him at Craven Cottage, or look to engineer a move to the Premier League? Well, here are 3 examples of players who made big money transfers at the age of 16, and how their careers have panned out since.
1. Fran Merida
A 16 year-old Merida trod a similar path to fellow Barcelona academy graduate Cesc Fabregas, arriving from Cataluña to London to sign for Arsenal for a fee of €3.2 million.
The Spanish central midfielder made a promising enough start at the Emirates, with impressive appearances in the League Cup prompting manager Arsene Wenger to describe Merida as “an absolutely amazing player,” upon the 18 year-old signing a new long-term deal with the Gunners.
However, after an unremarkable loan spell with Real Sociedad, Merida eventually left Arsenal on a free transfer in 2010, a decision which five years later he told The Mirror he regretted. After failing to impress at his new club Atletico Madrid, Merida has more recently moved to second division side SD Huesca, and enjoyed more first team action.
He has this summer returned to the Spanish top flight, after signing for CA Osasuna. At 26, Merida still has time to deliver on his potential that shone so brightly at the Emirates, but its fair to say that Merida’s move at the age of 16 proved a frustrating one for player and club.
2. Slobodan Rajkovic
Chelsea fans may be vaguely familiar with the name Rajkovic, despite the player never actually making an appearance for the club.
Born in Belgrade, Rajkovic impressed so much with his club side OFK Beograd at the age of 15, that Chelsea snapped him up for €2 million in November of his breakthrough year. The Serb was immediately loaned back to his former club, but problems arose when Chelsea applied for a work permit for the player.
4 years of loans to the Eredevisie followed, but still the defender was not permitted to turn out for his parent club. Eventually, Chelsea admitted defeat, and Rajkovic was sold to German side Hamburg, where he struggled with injury problems. Having recently moved to Italian side Palermo, Rajkovic is yet to hit the superstardom that he was tipped for at Stamford Bridge.
3. Martin Odegaard
Martin Odegaard
The most recent of the 16 year-old mega moves belongs to Real Madrid’s Martin Odegaard. Bought from Norwegian club Stromsgodset for a fee of around €3 million, Odegaard moved to Spanish giants Real Madrid to train with the Galacticos, but play for the reserve team, Castilla.
The Norwegian has made almost fifty appearances for the Madrid B team, but the Castilla side now play in the third tier of Spanish football. This has meant that there has been plenty of speculation over a loan move for Odegaard, seeing as he has made only one appearance for the full Madrid outfit.
The young midfielder is said to have made a steady start at the Bernabeu, but has not set the lower leagues of Spain alight. Of course as the player is still just 17 this transfer cannot be seen as a flop this early into his time at Real, but the transfer does seem a slightly strange one from Odegaard’s point of view.
Why leave his home club in Norway, where they play on artificial surfaces which help to improve players technically, to play in the lower tiers of Spanish football where the pitches are of a notoriously poor standard? Some day Odegaard may be a world beater – but at this point in time it appears as though this transfer has been a slightly disappointing one for the player. The jury is still out on Martin Odegaard.
All three of these players made moves to huge clubs at the age of just 16, something that young footballers around the world can only dream of. But these three transfers have had differing levels of success.
If Ryan Sessegnon is desperate to leave Fulham, which he has never hinted at publicly, then the London club may be powerless to stop the young prodigy. However there is a lot that a club like Fulham can offer Sessegnon at this stage of his career, not least opportunities to play first team football. Let’s hope that the young full-back doesn’t take for granted what he already has when considering offers from the Premier League big boys, and makes a decision that could hinder his career.
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