According to Marcus Vilson, writing for Swedish site Njus, Leeds United are said to be battling Manchester City for a Swedish wonderkid of Ethiopian ancestry.
Vilson says in his article that 14-year-old Naanol Daniel Tesfaye Chimdessa “has been watched by several Premier League clubs” with football giants Manchester City singled out of the top-tier interest.
The youngster moved from his native Ethiopia to Sweden to play for IF Stockholm’s academy set-up, later moving on to represent Vasalund IF where he played until this November, when he left the club.
Despite now being without a club, so effectively a free agent, Njus’ Vilson, as well as others such as O-Posts, say that the Swedish/Ethiopian youngster (he holds passports for both) “could be close to a move to Manchester City or Leeds United.”
Such is the high regard that Chimdessa is held in that the Ethiopian FA are said to have contacted the youngster with the intention of him possibly representing Ethiopia in the upcoming CAF African Nations Under-17 tournament.
Leeds United are a club who have a long-standing reputation of nurturing young players through their academy, on into the first team and moving on to the Premier League. Currently the Whites have Ronaldo Vieira and Kalvin Phillips as two former academy starts in the first team this season.
Recently the Whites have also seen Charlie Taylor, Sam Byram and Lewis Cook graduate from the Thorp Arch academy, into the first team and now in the Premier League with Burnley, West Ham and Bournemouth respectively.
Of course Manchester City don’t need any introduction and are a club whose scouting network is employed worldwide to bring in the world’s finest youngsters to their £200 million City Football Academy.
