Academy defender Ajibola Alese was born in Elm Park, East London and joined the Hammers Under 8’s at the tender young age of eight years of age.
The centre back became a full-time Academy of Football scholar in summer 2017, by which time he had already made his U18 Premier League debut against Norwich City on 4th February of the same year.
The defender featured eight times in total in 2016/17 while still a schoolboy before making a further four U18 Premier League South appearances the following season.
The 2017/18 campaign also saw Alese debut in Premier League 2 Division 1 in a goalless draw with Everton on 11 August 2017, and keep clean sheets on each of his first three starts.
At International level, he was capped three times at England U16 level before graduating to the Young Lions’ U17 squad in February 2018.
Alese helped England to reach the semi-finals of the 2018 UEFA European U17 Championship finals, where they were edged out 6-5 by the Netherlands in a penalty shootout. The defender featured three times at the tournament, also starting the group-stage defeat by Switzerland and quarter-final win over Norway.
The West Ham 19-year-old made his senior side debut in the Carabao Cup clash with Hull City on Tuesday night playing the full ninety minutes alongside Fabian Balbuena.
He spent the 2019/20 campaign on loan at Accrington Stanley, making 15 appearances in all competitions and won the Dylan Tombides Award in the 2019 end of season awards.
I do remember him being awarded the Dylan Tombides award, but I hadn’t seen him in action before the game against Hull and I must admit I was stunned by his composure, calmness and ability.
He looks to have all the attributes needed to play at the highest level and as supporters seeing our own youngsters make the grade is rewarding as we live our dreams of playing for West Ham through these kids.
This is the experience that will inspire our youngsters and boost their confidence and belief in knowing that they have a future at this club as Aji made reference to.
COYI
I agree Cat, I thought he was excellent against Hull. Strong, fast & composed.
Good to see a great prospect coming from my birthplace Elm Park. Last great player I can remember coming from this manor was Tommy Taylor!
It is brilliant that Alese, Johnson and Ashby are coming through. I have been so impressed with the 3 of them and I still cannot understand why Fredericks is in the team ahead of any of these. Fredericks will be terribly exposed this weekend against wolves so I am expecting one or two of these to see first team football soon. All great prospects let us not allow average players to hold these back when they are on the up. In my opinion all these 3 are better prospects than Ngala.
Guess I’m in the minority but I think Fredericks could do a real job at wing back, his pace is a massive asset.
I think we should look to the wise like Shankly and Ferguson, if a Player is good enough he old enough. Hammers, Hammers, play them all.
Reading between the lines are we trying to say ,well if we dont sign any defenders the youngsters can do a job…another week still nothing…what a shambles
I think we need to sign a top CH and LB. I would be happy for Alese to cover the CH position this season playing in the cups and I would be very happy for Johnson and Ashby to fight out for the RB position. Both are so much better than Fredericks and it is criminal what Moyes is thinking with him. He is holding us back big time. If we do sign a RB then I would hope Johnson would compete with him and Ashby play in the cups. But these 3 players have the ability to break through this season.
I think Moyes said more or less that at the end of last season – it would be good to bring in 3 or 4 players but if thats not possible we will work with what we have
IMHO if we had not sold Grady to WBA then fans would be a lot less angry with the board