The Rwanda international looked a top talent, but is now playing non-league football.
Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere warms up before the game
In April 2013 Arsenal’s hottest prospect Jack Wilshere was tipping one of the club’s young players for a massive future in the game.
He sent out this tweet:
The player in question was Alfred Mugabo. The talented midfielder was looking like a potential Arsenal first-teamer, with Wilshere’s backing at the time undoubtedly a big fillip for the young midfield maestro.
He even made his international debut for Rwanda in June 2013, featuring against Algeria in a World Cup qualifier.
But in March of the following year he was informed by Arsenal he would not be kept on beyond the summer. He went on trial to Sheffield Wednesday and was eventually released by the Gunners that summer.
So, four years on from Wilshere’s ringing endorsement, where is the 21-year-old now?
He played for Badu FC in the Camden Sunday League before spells in non-league football with the likes of Bedford Town, Enfield Town, Dulwich Hamlet and Canvey Island.
Arsenal’s Alfred Mugabo (L) and Manchester City’s Marcos Lopes in action
In February he joined the Metropolitan Police team. He has played three times for the club, winning on all three occasions. They were much needed wins, with ‘The Met’ one of six teams that could suffer relegation on the final day of the Isthmian Premier Division campaign.
Much like Wilshere, Mugabo’s career in football has not gone in the direction expected over the course of the past four years.
Hopefully he can find his way back up the ladder in the years to come.
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