The race to sign Orkun Kokcu is hotting up, with London trio Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham reportedly registering their interest in the Feyenoord wonderkid.
Orkun Kokcu is drawing interest from the who’s who of European football. According to Daily Mail, the Feyenoord youngster is on the radar of Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham – trio of footballing giants based in London. The player is also reportedly a target for runaway Ligue 1 leaders Paris Saint-Germain.
Kokcu started his footballing journey at Stormvogels before spending 3 years at FC Groningen. But, it is after the young midfielder joined Feyenoord in 2014 when he truly began rising the proverbial ladder in the footballing world. Rapidly rising through the ranks, the 17-year-old recorded insane numbers at the Under-19 level for Feyenoord.
17 goals and 34 assists at the Under-19 level also propelled Kokcu to represent Holland at the Under-19 level. Tipped for a big career, the midfielder is already training with the first-team and is starting to draw interest from top European clubs, with Premier League trio Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham the latest to be keen on the 17-year-old.
Chelsea have always been on the lookout for the best emerging youngsters as part of their model. But, of late, they have shown a penchant to be more open to grooming them into the first-team setup at Stamford Bridge, which might increase the attraction the club reflects as far as the youngsters are concerned.
Arsenal on the other hand, could be looking at Kokcu as a way to replenish their youth squad, which has seen several stars depart. The meanest blow was Serge Gnabry, who left Arsenal citing a lack of chances and is now a part of the first-team squad at Bayern Munich.
Tottenham, under the tutelage of Mauricio Pochettino, have shown a penchant of not going for superstars but rather buying into the future ones. Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Ben Davies, Kieran Trippier are all evidence of the same while the academy has dished out the likes of Harry Kane, Harry Winks and Kyle Walker-Peters in recent times.
Honestly, any of the teams would be a suitable place for Kokcu as it would equip him with state-of-the-art facilities with the ability of potentially training with superstars and watching them up close to learn a few tricks of the trade.
For now though, his focus would be to break into the Feyenoord first-team, a prospect that is more like a matter of when – the answer is ‘pretty soon’ by the looks of it.
