Chidozie Obi-Martin, better known as Chido Obi, appears to be the next big thing to come out from Arsenal’s acclaimed academy. The 15-year-old is already punching above his weight and ousting players older than him to make a huge impression on those in and around the club.
Obi has garnered a lot of attention after his unreal performance for the Arsenal U16 side in their recent 14-3 WIN over Liverpool U16s. The Danish forward decided to prove his goal-scoring prowess by scoring a whopping 10 goals, which is more than a triple hattrick in a single game for the junior Gunners.
The teenager seems to be an absolute machine in the final third for his side. He is blessed with a lot of pace and dribbling ability to dart past defenders at will, and seems to be ruthless with his finishing as well.
Obi absolutely blew away the sorry Liverpool defenders with his incredible performance to make himself go viral on social media.
Despite being just 15, Obi’s amazing performance has seen him rapidly climb the ranks among the Arsenal youth team. He has played for their U18s and U21s side this season, even scoring a hattrick for Arsenal’s U18 side in their clash against Southampton U18 earlier in the campaign.
The Danish forward has also been a marvel for the Denmark youth teams and has actually an interesting international career already.
He was born in Denmark in 2007 and is also eligible to play for Nigeria thanks to his parent’s lineage. As he is playing in England for quite some years now, Obi is also eligible to represent the England national team and has even made two appearances for the England U16 side.
With that being said, the 15-year-old appears to be bent on playing for Denmark rather than playing for the Three Lions going forward.
He has represented Denmark at the U16 and U17 level, scoring three goals in six appearances for their U16 side. Obi has also netted seven goals in nine appearances for their U17 side, impressing their coach Jesper Mikkelsen as well.
The Danish U17 gaffer garnered him with praise, saying: “Right now he is really dominant because of his physique, but I don’t think that is the only reason. His greatest characteristic and challenge is that he really wants to score goals. When I say it can also be a disadvantage, I mean that he can sometimes play his own game. He is very searching for chances, where he forgets that you also have to play with the others.”
Fortunately for Obi, he is at a club that significantly rewards their stand-out youth products. Mikel Arteta isn’t shy to give teenagers a chance in his first-team squad and the Danish forward has even trained with the first-team this season.
With the likes of Bukayo Saka and Eddie Nketiah currently pivotal parts of the team, the 15-year-old can probably dream of a first-team debut coming soon if he can maintain his unreal goal-scoring heroics.
Obi might be further encouraged by Arteta’s treatment of highly-rated Arsenal midfielder Ethan Nwaneri, who made his senior debut for the Gunners at the age of 15 years and 181 days.
The Danish forward, of course, has to bulk up physically and improve his temperament and composure during matches to excel at the senior level – because the Premier League is many, many steps above the level he’s excelling right now.
With that being said, the 15-year-old’s incredible goal-scoring habits and rapid developments indicate that a senior call-up isn’t far away.
Even though it remains to be seen if Obi can get a key first-team spot like Saka or end up getting sold like Folarin Balogun in the future, one thing that is almost assured is that this isn’t the first time he’ll go viral in his career.
