Hammers inherit top youngster

By Johnny Laker

Earlier this week that 18 year old celebrated his birthday by signing his first ever professional contract with us, and it has been well earned with impressive form in 2022 for the Under 18 side which already saw him promoted into the Development Group to push him on further.

The Northern Irish youngster has scored a whopping nine goals in only four Under 18 matches in the first part of the 2022/23 campaign and he has also featured eight times across all competitions for the Under 21s, netting his first Premier League 2 goal away to Blackburn in October.

It has been a stellar 12 months for the lad with him joining on scholarship terms from NIFL Premiership side Linford last January, and he is clearly impressing the coaches across our youth Academy levels.

Speaking to the Official Site as his first pro deal was announced, Marshall was naturally delighted declaring: “Signing my first professional deal with West Ham United feels really good. It’s something that I’ve been working towards my whole life.

My 2022 has been very enjoyable and has also had its peaks and troughs. I’ve just been trying to replicate my form from the U18s into the U21s, and it’s been a hard step up.

I’m on my way back from an injury too so, for me, it’s about getting as much game time as I can with the U18s in the coming weeks, and hopefully do well.

Now it’s time for me to push on. I need to keep my foot on the gas and keep going forward. I’m so happy to sign my first professional deal and now I want to try and get back into the U21s team after the World Cup.”

The attacker’s future is in good hands with interim Academy manager Kenny Brown and incoming Sporting Director Mark Noble , who joined him and his parents to celebrate the new contract, and Brown has high hopes for him in the years ahead.

“We are delighted to agree professional terms with Callum. Callum has been a consistent figure in our U18s and, more recently, our U21s since joining the Academy of Football in January and it has been a pleasure to see him improve each week. I know Callum’s efforts have caught the eyes of West Ham United fans in his short time with us already and everyone in the Academy is eager to see him continue to grow and develop throughout the rest of the 2022/23 season and beyond.”

Certainly a player worth watching with an eye to two or three years in the future.

Image from: unsplash.com

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon