Following Ovie Ejeheri’s contract announcement, Nathan Butler-Oyedeji was the last Arsenal u23 player with an outstanding contract offer but the club have now announced this has been signed.
Arsenal confirmed on Wednesday that Ovie Ejeheri had signed his first professional contract with the club, 10 years after joining as an eight-year-old.
As mentioned in our article on Mazeed Ogungbo’s new deal earlier this week, Arsenal made offers to five academy players with contracts expiring in June: Kido Taylor-Hart, Arthur Okonkwo, Nathan Butler-Oyedeji, Ovie Ejeheri, and Mazeed Ogungbo.
Until late on Thursday, four of those had signed, with only Nathan Butler-Oyedeji’s future still up in the air. Unlike the rest, he has been in individual training, not team training, and he hasn’t played any part in pre-season. In all honesty, an exit looked more likely for him.
Butler-Oyedeji’s agency recently posted a cryptic “loading” video on their Instagram page, an edit showing the player in training.
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Now, however, the club have announced that the 18-year-old winger has signed his first professional contract.
The young forward initially broke into the u18s as a right-winger, but he filled in up front on a few occasions last season. He made 14 appearances for the u18s overall in 2020/21, and one for the u23s on the final day of the season.