The winter transfer deadline day which closed shut few days ago had many players making surprise moves and others on a big spending spree for their top targets.
Particularly, One of the surprise moves on transfer deadline day was the transfer of Ghanaian youngster Nathan Opoku, 21, who made a big leap from college soccer with the Syracuse University straight to joining Leicester City in the English Premiership.
The announcement of the transfer came with so much excitement especially from people in America who were impressed with the move for Nathan Opoku who becomes the first player to move from college football straight to signing with a Premiership club, a big one to challenge for and to give some relief to the soccer players to believe in the possibility.
With confirmation already completed, the young striking prospect have immediately been sent out on loan to the affiliate club of Leicester City FC, to continue his development until the end of the season. Nathan will stay with Belgium Pro League outfit OH Leuven, where he would look to getting some more game time before returning to King Power Stadium at the end of the season.
Before Nathan Opoku had the opportunity to go the USA, with sights of combining education with football he was playing in the lower tier of Ghana Football with third tier side Sporting Club Accra (SCA). Opoku joined SCA as a 12 years old boy in 2014 up until 2021 as he grew through the youth ranks at the lower tier club where had many keeping an eye on him because of his talent with prolific scoring abilities showing great prospect at a very tender age.
In 2018, Opoku was called up to the U-17 junior national team of Ghana where was named in the final squad of Ghana’s U-17 squad for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) U-17 qualifiers which in the end Ghana failed to qualify to the impending AFCON campaign that year. But that didn’t stop the young lad from showing his scoring prowess as in one of the games the then 16 year old was subbed on and immediately made an impact where he scored a beautifully finished striker’s goal.
After his impressive showings during the qualifying campaign the young lad got an invitation to join a training camp of Premiership side Manchester City FC where he continued to experience playing at the top level and improving his game. The young lad followed it up with another stint in 2020 at Danish Super League side Randers FC trialing with the first team where he continue his progress having to take the experience cumulated from these top clubs to continue to improve.
The American dream began for Nathan Opoku in 2021, where he got the opportunity to combine education and football playing in the American colleges having to go through different schools before finally arriving at the Syracuse University (SU) where he finally got his break after an impressive seasons with the Orange side where he helped Syracuse University win the championship for the first time with some outstanding performances and scoring some jaw breaking goals to bring success to SU.
Right after the triumph with SU he got the opportunity to trial at Leicester City where he showed glimpse of an improved footballer with exciting prospects that impressed the technical team of the Leicester City who recommended his signature to the club which was immediately facilitated and the lad after impressive showings shipped to OH Leuven where he will kick off his professional career.
Sporting Club Accra have been a talent house where young talents are nurtured and trained for top level, with the likes of former Ghana International Kwabena Owusu who moved from SCA straight to the then Spanish La Liga side Leganes and now playing for Fevrencaros in the top flight of Hungary after joining from Azerbaijani top tier side Qarabag this January transfer window, Kamal Sowah who also signed for Leicester City and moved onto OHL before being sold to Club Brugge in Belgium, Emmanuel Danso joining Olympique Marseille but now at Stromsgodset, Issah Salou to Randers FC in Denmark but now ply his trade for Skive FK in Norway, Caleb Gomina who was on the books of Moreinense in Portugal and most recently Accra Hearts of Oak new signing Kwabena Anane who moved from SCA to Golden Kick FC before the season started, with a lot of other players playing across the borders of Ghana.
Nathan Opoku will look to taking up the challenge with OHL to continue where he left off in America with making an instant impact with his performances for the Belgium Pro League side and make a big claim for an chance with the first team when he returns to Leicester City at the end of his loan spell in Belgium.
By: Cobby Jonah ( Kindly, Follow me on Instagram; @jocobbinah )
