Hugely talented young striker Donyell Malen has signed his first professional contract with Arsenal.
The Dutch youth international put pen to paper on a new deal last month that will run until June 30th, 2018. The club have yet to make an announcement regarding Malen’s contract.
The 17-year-old has made a significant impression since joining Arsenal from Ajax. Having initially been introduced to English football at U18 level, Malen has since broken into Arsenal’s UEFA Youth League side and has scored three goals in seven appearances at U21 level.
Malen, who has trained with the first-team squad on several occasions since joining the club, is fast, skilful and an intelligent decision maker.
He joins fellow 2015 scholars Jordi Osei-Tutu, Tolaji Bola, Yassin Fortune, Marcus McGuane and Joshua Dasilva in having signed professional terms. That leaves Vlad Dragomir, Charlie Gilmour, Edward Nketiah, Kostas Pileas, Nathan Tella and Joe Willock as the remaining first-year scholars. Of those only Pileas is currently eligible to sign professional terms.
Jeorge Bird's Arsenal Youth 
Let’s hope he can continue his development and is in the Arsenal first team for years to come. About time we had another Dutch star, feels weird without one 🙂
Malen, Mavididi, Akpom. We have a healthy competition among youth strikers. Jeorge, who do you think is most likely to make the breakthrough?
I’d say Malen at the moment but Mavididi and Akpom are very talented as well.
Mavididi’s shown character winning his place back in the side.
Can’t have been easy seeing Malen, a younger striker from overseas, come in and knock him out the starting 11.
But he’s knuckled down and bounced back stronger. He’s delivered on the pitch and been called to train with the first team.
From what I’ve seen of Malen (mainly highlights), he looks special.
The young Dutchman’s got that bit of magic you need to make it at the top.
I was surprised to hear Bergkamp recommended him to Arsenal. I thought the Gunner great’s first loyalty would have been to his employer, Ajax, the club we poached Malen from.
Not sure if this is true though.
Either way, we’ve got a gem of a player on the books.
What are his realistic goals for next season?
Malen.
Akpom is struggling in the championship, so he is unlikely to pull any tree in the premiership. At the same age, playing for the same manager in the same division Bentdner was the main striker. Scoring regularly, but also holding play. Akpom’s holding is not good, his back to goal is poor. He seems to become interested when the ball is in the vicinity of goal, but nowadays a good striker must do much more than just being a goal poacher.
Mavididi looks good, because of his superior athleticism. The problem is that he does not seem to have technical ability or vision to take to another level. When he will be faced with better, and more experienced defenders, he may come a cropper. Some years ago, every body was chastising Wenger for not buying Connor Wickham. Now everybody agree that Connor Wickham is a big lump, who knows how to use his strength but nowhere good enough to deserve to play for AFC.
It may sound harsh, but if Benik Afobe was deemed not good enough to play for Arsenal, both Akpom and Mavididi need to really step up to be even considered.
Don’t be too harsh on mavididi, the boy is only 17, I also remember a certain spurs striker not being too great in the championship, seems to be doing okay now.
Bendtner had the talent to make it, but not the attitude.
Afobe was never deemed not got enough, tbf. It was a case of injuries hampering his development and then a decent offer came in and it was decided the best for all parties was for him to leave.
Wenger still rates him highly.
Thanks Jeorge,
How is young Malen in the strength department? For young strikers/footballers with the ability it is often the attribute that determines the if, when and how much of an impact they can make at senior level.
By strength it’s not just his physical power but also characters of tenacity, resilience, fight etc. which are the intangibles that interest me. By watching them training and play you would get a reasonable sense of these attributes in players?
Weldone Donyell wish you all the luck! Greetz from Lea and Jacco.
Well done Donyell, wish you all the luck! Greetz Lea and Jacco.
That’s bullshit, it’s easy to say that rates someone high, but if you really do, you won’t let him go. Wenger made great mistake about Benik, supposing he won’t get back to his best after injury. Benik has been only one of all these young prospects who’s got natural instinct of scoring goals. Wenger didn’t see that and always preferred more playmaker-style strikers, but Benik is just the type of player that our squad is needing just now. Ok, Benik has gone, and i don’t believe that Wenger would go after him, cause he would never admit his mistakes. But i think this all has gone in a best way for Benik and in few years he will be scoring for one of the big teams in premier league or abroad. Just like Andy Cole in 90s. Natural scorers are wanted in this game.