The Academy of Football: West Ham's Oscar Borg

If you have been following the exploits of West Ham’s under 18’s this season then the name Oscar Borg may well ring a bell.

Borg first started to enter the U18 fold in the closing stages of the 2013/14 season and before his promotion to the under 18 set up he was even named as a substitute for the under 21’s 2-1 defeat against Chelsea in January 2014. Quite an achievement for the then 15 year old considering he’d started the 2013/14 season playing for the under 16’s; meaning he progressed from the under 16’s to the under 21’s in around five months – impressive stuff indeed. The 16 year old first came to West Ham’s attention playing at U13 level for AFC Wimbledon and subsequently signed for the Hammers before he reached his teen years.

Source: whufc.com

Borg’s summer was largely dominated by the mini transfer saga of whether he will join Manchester United or not. After interest from Southampton he was handed a trial for the Red Devils in the 2014 Milk Cup hosted in Northern Ireland starting in the competition against CSKA Moscow, County Armagh and playing the full 90 minutes in an 11-0 rout of Gold Coast Academy. Borg then completely his fourth full 90 minutes of the tournament against French outfit Vendée in a 1-0 in the Milk Cup final playing at left back. Borg continued to play for United in August of 2014, starting against Bolton Wanderers in the Barclays Under 18 Premier League which finished scoreless in which Borg put in a hard working and inspired shift and probably deserved an assist to his name as he switched between left back and left midfield. Coincidently he was up against Will Jääskeläinen in the Wanderers goal; son of West Ham’s very own Jussi. However even after Borg’s impressive stint he was not able to permanently join Manchester United due to a dispute between West Ham and Manchester United over the compensation fee that stands at around £220,000.

Oscar linked back up with West Ham’s youth academy in early September and not long after rumours surfaced, from Italian publication Tutto Mercato Web and home based Daily Mail, that Turkish clubs Galatasaray and Beşiktaş were tracking the left back after discovering Borg’s grandmother was Istanbul born. As Turkish Süper Lig clubs are only permitted to field five foreign players at a time players with Turkish heritage and eligible for Turkey’s national team are naturally heavily sought after. The Turkish Football Federation are also reportedly exploring the possibility of Borg representing Turkey in the future. Oscar has no caps for any country or their youth teams at the moment, despite having a mixed background including Maltese and Swedish roots as well as English and Turkish. A rather eventful September was capped off by Oscar finally signing a scholarship with West Ham United, beating off interest from more clubs in Manchester City and Everton.

October saw Borg hit two class free kicks for the U18’s against rivals Tottenham Hotspur – living up to his nickname “Gareth” that the coaches at West Ham have christened him with and if you watch some of his U16 and U18 highlights he really does have a likeness to Gareth Bale. Whether he lives up to his nickname is one thing, but all signs look promising as some of Europe’s biggest clubs have tracked him and will continue to do so.