Portuguese giants Porto have confirmed the signing of Kelechi Nwakali on a season-long loan from Arsenal. The Nigerian footballer joined the Gunners during the summer of 2016 and he has since had temporary stints at MVV Maastricht and VVV Venlo after failing to secure a work permit with the north London club.
Speaking on Porto’s official website, Nwakali said that he is looking forward to developing more as a player and highlighted his ambition to meet club legend Deco, who was a huge role model during the early phase of his professional career, he said:“My main goal is to develop and evolve as a player.Improve my qualities and the other aspects that I know I need to correct to help me grow in the way I play.
“I think FC Porto is the right place to evolve as a player. There are good players, young people, and I think I’ll grow up here. I know FC Porto very well, because one of my football idols has played here: Deco.He was a midfielder that I loved to watch play and I really hope to be able to meet him one day and tell him the importance he had in my desire to be a football player.”
Nwakali has been hugely rated ever since captaining Nigeria to the Under-17 World Cup success in 2015 and he has since progressed to the point of representing their reserve side who took on Atletico Madrid in an exhibition earlier this summer. In that game, Nwakali netted a stunning goal in a 2-3 defeat which presented calls for him to make the World Cup squad, though the final roster was already announced.
Arsenal have made five signings in the form of Stephan Lichtsteiner, Bernd Leno, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi, during the ongoing transfer window and manager Unai Emery has confirmed that the club’s business is pretty much up barring one ‘big signing’ before the transfer deadline.