Swansea City youngster, , Joel Joshghene Asoro is back in the spotlight, as his name resonates among soccer pundits, as the youngest Nigerian-born player ever to play in the English Premier League, not Bukayo Saka of Arsenal.
Although Saka has become the lad to gloat over in recent time, footballlive.ng reports that Asoro held the youngest-tag heading into the EPL’s last weekend fixtures of 2018.
The 18-year-old Asoro, who said early this year that he is open to the idea of playing for Nigeria and that contacts has been made with the Super Eagles’ crew, at a point when he was passing through the ranks at The Stadium of Light.
Asoro was 17 years, 3 months and 25 days when he made his English Premier League, but Saka got a last chance on Saturday to set a new record of just 24 hours short on the ex-Sunderland kid’s mark.
Saka’s last chance to break Asoro’s record was in Arsenal’s crunchy tie away to Liverpool, with the fast-growing Nigerian-born lad aged 17 years, 3 months and 24 days, a week after he was an unused substitute against Burnley.
However, Saka, who trained with The Gunners’ first team on Friday, ahead of their trip to Anfield, is still the youngest player of Nigerian descent to feature in the UEFA Europa League.
Saka set the mark after he replaced Aaron Ramsey in Arsenal’s 3-0 win against Vorskla Poltava, thereby quashing a nine-year record previously held by former Super Eagles midfielder, Hope Akpan.
Incidentally, Joel Asoro (born 27 April 1999) is registered under the nationality tag of Sweden at Swansea in the English Championship.
The former Swedish under-21 international started his career at IFK Haninge in a southern Stockholm suburb, then moved to IF Brommapojkarna when he was 11 years old.
Asoro signed for Sunderland in 2015, but it was not until August 21, 2016 that he got his professional debut in the league, as an 81st-minute substitute against Middlesbrough.
On 24 August 2016, Asoro got his first Sunderland start under David Moyes in a 1–0 win over Shrewsbury Town in the EFL Cup, but he joined Swansea in a four-year contract worth £2m in July 2018.
