West Brom starlet Jamal Jimoh pens lucrative contract with Aston Villa as £1m fee agreed
West Brom have agreed to sell starlet Jamal Jimoh to Aston Villa in a deal worth £1m plus 10% of any future sale, according to Express and Star (13 June).
The Baggies had previously agreed a pre-contract with the 16-year-old to pen professional terms at The Hawthorns, but Villa made their intentions clear and agreed a seven-figure deal with West Brom to avoid going to tribunal.
Jimoh also attracted interest from the likes of Tottenham, but according to the report the London club were not willing to match the “lucrative” offer that Villa made to the England youth international.
“The Baggies had a pre-contract agreement in place for the midfielder to become a first-year scholar but Villa made their interest clear and the clubs negotiated a deal to avoid the matter going to a tribunal,” they wrote.
“Tottenham were also keen on Jimoh but were unwilling to match Villa’s lucrative offer to the player.”
Decent
Jimoh is another in the growing trend that has seen youth academy starlets swap the blue and white stripes for claret and blue, with Tim Iroegbunam, Finn Azaz and Finley Thorndike, Triston Rowe and Luka Lynch all switching sides too.
An England Under-17 international, Jimoh being sold for £1m with a 10% sell-on clause to a club like Villa is probably good business from West Brom considering the situation we’re in right now.
The likelihood of Jimoh coming through at our club and shining in the Championship with the way we are right now is slim, and we would almost certainly have got less than that amount had we let the matter go to tribunal.
Add to that the fact that if he shines and gets a chance at Villa Park and then gets sold for a bundle of cash, we’ll cash in even more and can be proud to have another player in the system.
It’s obviously a shame for the youth coaches that they won’t see their work come to fruition at The Hawthorns, but the club continue to develop excellent young players which can only be a positive if we get everything else right going forward.
In other West Brom news, one star man was spotted with Matheus Pereira on social media recently.