Italian Serie A champions AC Milan stepped up preparation for their title defence and also a return to the UEFA Champions League by playing their first pre season game on Saturday.
Two goals from Olivier Giroud ensured they claimed a 2-1 win over hard fighting German side Cologne. They will be in action again against Hungarian side Zalaegerszegi, who are famously known for beating Manchester United 1–0 in the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League qualifying stage.
With the big name players now back in training, the team will no doubt begin to shape up for next season on a different level with 17 year old Nigerian teen sensation Victor Eletu Ehuwa prime to stamp his foot in the first team.
Ehuwa has been training with the first team since the start of pre season training and per one of the representative of his Nigerian Academy Allele Celestine in a mail to OwnGoalNigeria.com, he is set to sign professional terms with the team.
“Victor Eletu Ehuwa is on the verge of signing his first professional contract with AC Milan and our negotiations are going on smoothly and 95% done.That’s why Milan showed their trust, and confidence on his talent by drafting him to be training with the first team squad towards the end of the just concluded season and followed it up again by listing him amongst the players going for the new season Pre-season Camp,” the chief scout of Kazeem Eletu Academy revealed in his mail.
The discussion to sign professional terms with AC Milan is a way of repaying the trust they had in developing the left footed midfielder as he could easily have signed elsewhere in Europe. Ehuwa had offers from Villareal, Sevilla, Benfica, Barcelona and Eintracht Frankfurt among others before deciding to pledge his future to the Serie A side.
Contacts with the above mentioned team was made possible after his perfomances in the UEFA Youth League and also other youth tournaments monitored by host of teams in Europe.
He also went further to clarify an error on our part where we wrongly said he was scouted last year at the Viareggio youth tournament. He said Ehuwa has been with the Milan team for four years since he was granted scholarship to join the AC Milan soccer school at the age of 14.
“The true of the matter is that Victor Eletu Ehuwa was moved to Milan under the sponsorship of his Nigerian academy, Prince Kazeem Eletu Royal Academy based in Osapa London, Lekki, Lagos State.
“For record purpose, Victor Eletu Ehuwa has been with Milan soccer school since four years now and when the writer said he spent a year with the club, I was shocked with the report because the writer has given wrong information about my player which is not good for the image of Prince Kazeem Eletu Academy and the founder’,” he further said.