West Ham United right-back Jeremy Ngakia has become the club’s latest academy graduate to join the first-team on a permanent basis, following in the footsteps of Declan Rice, Grady Diangana and Ben Johnson, and the 19-year-old will hope to establish himself as a key part of the starting line-up going forward.
Ngakia has only three senior team appearances to his name, but has already shown his huge potential, putting in impressive shifts against Liverpool (home and away) and Southampton.
The London-born full-back joined the West Ham academy in 2014 and was part of the under-17 team that beat Gamba Osaka in the final of the J-League Club Challenge title in 2017.
He made his under-18 debut for the Hammers after that tournament before earning promotion to the under-23s in 2018.
An info on Ngakia’s Wikipedia page claims he was initially involved in the academy at Chelsea before joining West Ham, but The Athletic’s Roshane Thomas reports that those close to the defender say this isn’t true.
It’s widely known that his fellow Hammer Rice was a part of the Blues’ academy before he was released at 14 after seven years, and it will be interesting to hear from the horse’s mouth if he was ever with Chelsea or not.
Ngakia is proving to be a gem for the Hammers, and that’s all that matters for now, so it is safe to say whichever club released him prior to his move to West Ham missed a trick.
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