As starts go, you’d struggle to find one better than the start Chido Obi-Martin has made since swapping Arsenal for Premier League rivals Manchester United.
Averaging a goal a game at youth level and with a record already under his belt – Obi-Martin is now the Under-18 Premier League’s all-time top scorer – it appears that all the excitement surrounding his switch to Carrington over the summer was more than justified.
In typical fashion, he exploded out of the blocks on the international stage too.
Making his first appearance for Denmark’s U18 side in September, Obi-Martin needed only 28 minutes to open his account. Yet, with the Manchester United wonderkid born to Nigerian parents in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, there are concerns that the 16-year-old sensation may still opt to switch his international allegiances.
Denmark praying Manchester United’s Chido Obi-Martin chooses them
Kenneth Heiner-Moller, the head of talent for the Denmark Football Association, admits that the Euro 2020 semi-finalists would be hugely disappointed to lose a footballer of Obi-Martin’s supreme potential.
The prospect of Obi-Martin battling Rasmus Hojlund for a starting spot, not only at Man United but for Denmark too, is a dream which lives on back in Scandinavia.
“We absolutely believe that he can become a top player. He has some finishing skills that are pretty fierce. And, then, he has a wild physique,” Heiner-Moller tells BT.
“That would be very sad [if he switched to represent Nigeria].
“If we were a club, we could offer him a bigger contract. Better terms, a bigger car and a villa. But we are not a club, so we can only offer him to play in a Danish national team shirt. There is not much we can do [to influence his decision].
“So. I hope that Chido will play for the Danish [senior] national team.”
It is not exactly uncommon for national team managers to hand a precocious teenager his first senior cap long before he is ready, with the aim of blocking a change of allegiance later down the line.
Heiner-Moller ‘guarantees’ that Denmark will ‘never, ever’ go down this route, however.
Denmark make ‘guarantee’ as Obi-Martin faces Nigeria decision
“I am well aware that there are some other countries that look at this sort of thing differently,” he adds. “And there will probably be some who think that it is unambitious and frivolous of us. But there are just other things that count more for us.
“We are not going to bind anyone to a national team that they do not want to represent in the long term. I hope that Chido and everyone else who has multiple citizenships will choose what they think is right, and I mean that completely sincerely.”
With 37 goals in 23 games in the Under-18 Premier League, Obi-Martin is filling the void created by Ethan Wheatley’s step up to Under-21 level.
Wheatley was Man United’s go-to centre-forward as Adam Lawrence’s team swept all before them in 2023/24. But maintain his flying start, and Wheatley’s exceptional tally from last season could soon come under threat from arguably the finest 16-year-old talent in the entire country.
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