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Manchester United are targeting an exciting young talent but there is a catch.
The starlet in question is just at the start of his primary school journey.
The Star report that both Manchester United and Sheffield United have been scouting five year old, Jacob Wale.
“Scouts of the two Premier League clubs have been drooling over the prospect, despite the fact he’s too young yet to have played many competitive games”.
The paper reports that in spite of his young age, “they have seen enough in training and skill drills, though, to mark him out as a possible star of the future”.
Described as “slick” and “fearless” the talent will not be able to sign a deal with any club until he is nine years old but Manchester United aim to ensure they are at the head of the queue should he continue to progress into the player he promises to be.
Jacob is the son of former British boxing champion Josh Wale, and the former boxer stated, “it was only a few weeks ago that Jacob was asked to play for Brampton U7s”.
“He’s too young to play in league games, but they had a friendly at Maltby so he could play his first proper game. A Sheffield United coach was there and he asked me for Jacob’s date of birth. When I told him he thought I had got it wrong. He couldn’t believe he is five!”.
“Jacob was man of the match, he scored and was brilliant. He was invited to the (Blades’) academy the next day and immediately put through to their elite group.”
However, the Wale family are massive United fans and their dreams came true when Josh recalled, “I got a phone call from a Man United scout saying he had heard good reports about Jacob and asked if he could watch him train”.
“I thought: ‘Is somebody winding me up?’ After all, we are all all lifelong Man United fans. I hope he is the next George Best!”
“The scout said that he knew within 10 minutes of watching Jacob that they’d invited him to their Academy base for youngsters at Bradford Park Avenue”.
The youngster is credited with having exceptional balance and confidence while loving to cut in from the wing and shoot.
He is currently training on a Wednesday and Friday in Sheffield and a Tuesday and Thursday for United.
His dad claims though it is not getting to the boy’s head.
“After school, he gets in the car, has something to eat, and then asks which club he is going to, today! He is cool about it, absorbs everything, and just does his own thing”.
Speaking on his son’s future, the former professional star claimed “everybody wants their kids to do well but I don’t want to be one of those pushy parents – all kids want to be the next Ricky Hatton or David Beckham, I just say let them crack on and we’ll support them whatever happens”.
“I’ll keep supporting Jacob to wherever he needs to be. It would be amazing if he got into the Man United first team, one day, I won the British title but for Jacob to play at that level like he is hopefully going to do, that would just be tremendous.”
Who knows, maybe in 15 years we will see Old Trafford (or perhaps a new stadium) packed with fans wearing the Wale number 7 shirt.