Former Ajax Amsterdam starlet of Nigerian descent Joel Ideho has revealed that Arsenal started showing interest in him after he scored a world class goal against FC Midtjylland in the quarterfinals of last season's UEFA Youth League.

Ideho snubbed advances of Southampton and Hertha Berlin before signing a three-year professional contract that will keep him at the Emirates Stadium until the end of the 2022-2023 season.

A winger by trade, he started off his career with RKTVV, followed by moves to SC 't Zand and Willem II, where he spent four years before he was poached by Ajax Amsterdam.

On how his move to Arsenal came about, Ideho told Arsenal's matchday programme for the visit of Olympiakos : "I played a game in the Youth League against FC Midtjylland and chipped the keeper from 20 yards, and that's when clubs started to show their interest in me.

"It's always nice hearing that clubs have belief in your talent , but to find out that Arsenal were interested was amazing.

"I was so happy because Arsenal is such a big club with great history and they've had some iconic Dutch players over the years too."

Ideho admitted that he had a difficult start to his career at Arsenal and he's targeting more goals and assists after opening his goalscoring account for the club against Norwich City last weekend.

"Now, the first few months of the season were difficult for me.

"I wasn't playing many games and that was hard for me, especially in the middle of this pandemic, but I'm picking up more minutes now, finding my flow and making more friends too.

"Scoring my first goal for the club last week felt amazing, but now I'm just focused on scoring more, assisting more and helping the team in any way possible. That's the most important thing."

Ideho has made appearances for Arsenal's U18, U21 and U23 sides, logging 418 minutes in ten matches across all competitions.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel