One Sunderland youngster is nearing first-team football after his recent performance at U21 level.
The Black Cats’ academy set-up continues to produce some of the finest talent in the Championship.
Currently sitting in-the centre-of-the-park at Sunderland is academy duo Chris Rigg and Dan Neil, who were both nurtured brilliantly in the Black Cats youth set-up before thriving in recent years.
However, currently as part of the youth set-up is one outlier, a Sunderland summer signing that is yet to notch a single minute of first-team action, despite arriving for a seven-figure fee, and that is Ahmed Abdullahi.
The striker arrived on Wearside with a major injury, but his most recent performance with the U21 side has shown him to be near to first-team ready.
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Sunderland summer signing Ahmed Abdullahi notches U21 goal as first-team introduction draws closer
Black Cats youngster Abdullahi joined in the summer for a reported £3million fee, but is yet to feature as part of Regis Le Bris’ side because of injury.
As a result, there has been plenty of anticipation that has built up over the months in regards to what Sunderland fans could expect from the young Nigerian, and based off his recent U21 performance, his potential introduction in the coming weeks to first-team football could prove fruitful.
In a 5-0 win against Wolves, Sunderland’s U21 side ran rampant, with Abdullahi notching his own goal in 45 minutes of action.
The Nigerian 20-year-old was described via Sunderland Echo as ‘impressive’ throughout his one-half cameo, showing brilliant pace and composure when it came to his goal in the 5-0 victory.
Regis Le Bris could repeat Eliezer Mayenda blueprint with Ahmed Abdullahi
Looking at Abdullahi’s potential route to first-team football, on the surface it looks like an unlikely one due to the options available to Le Bris at striker, which includes Wilson Isidor, Eliezer Mayenda, and, most recently, Jayden Danns, who has arrived on loan from Liverpool.
Because of this, it may seem difficult for Abdullahi to cement a first-team spot, but many were saying the exact same thing about Mayenda prior and during the opening weeks of the 2024/25 Championship campaign.
Simply put, Le Bris does not shy away from giving youngsters and the lesser experienced ranks the game-time they need to develop, and the French boss will certainly do this with Abdullahi, as he did with Mayenda at the start of this season.