Arsenal youngster Elian Quesada-Thorn has signed his first professional contract with the Gunners, the club have confirmed.

On Thursday morning, Arsenal confirmed that 18-year-old Costa Rican Elian Quesada-Thorn has signed his first professional contract with the club.

“I’ve been dreaming of this from when I was a young kid at Hale End, so it’s a great moment for me,” Quesada-Thorn said.

“I love this club, I’m a boyhood fan, as soon as they offered, I feel like there was no question.”

Quesada-Thorn is an 18-year-old academy left-back who has also featured for the Costa Rica u20s in the past.

The teenager split his time between the u18s and the u21s last season, making 12 appearances before the midpoint of the campaign, but he then missed the remainder of the season with an injury.

Before the injury, Quesada-Thorn trained with the Arsenal first team on occasion, but he was ineligible to feature in the Europa League as he hadn’t yet signed a professional contract.

Now that he’s done so, he’ll be eligible for the Champions League this season, but his focus will be on impressing with the u21s for the time being.

Having aged out of u18 football, the defender will be making the permanent step up this campaign.

Quesada-Thorn will have strong competition from Lino Sousa at left-back, but he may find himself benefitting from Sousa’s first-team call-ups.

Sousa is currently with the senior squad in training ahead of the pre-season tour, and he may continue to be involved with the squad, particularly given the injury issues regularly faced by Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kieran Tierney.

Quesada-Thorn also has Henry Jeffcott for competition in the u21s, but it seems he’s ready to take on the challenge.

Quesada-Thorn: “I’ve been dreaming of this”

Quesada-Thorn has expressed his excitement upon signing his first professional contract with the club. The young defender has been with the club since 2015 and the professional contract marks a significant milestone in his career.

During the interview, Quesada-Thorn stated, “Yes, I am so delighted to have all my family with me here, Per and everyone here to sign the contract. I’ve been dreaming of this since I was a young kid at Hale End, so it’s a great moment for me.”

When asked about his decision to sign the contract, he responded without hesitation: “I love this club. I’m a boyhood fan: as soon as they offered, I feel like there was no question.”

Describing his style of play, Quesada-Thorn explained: “I’d say I’m a versatile player and very creative when I’m on the ball. I love to do the dirty work as well. I can do both sides of the game and hopefully, I can share that this season.”

He further elaborated on his potential growth in the full-back position, saying, “I think full-back is a massive role in the modern game. We’ve seen it with the first team and how Mikel likes to implement that with Zinchenko. I feel like it’s something I can improve on but it’s also a strength of mine as well and I’ve shown that in my matches. I’ll continue to improve and do that more.”

Reflecting on his progress and goals for the upcoming season, he shared: “last season was a bit frustrating because of injuries and things like that, so I’d say that my main goal this year would be just to stay fit. I want to consistently play under-21 games and hopefully earn the trust of Mehmet, but also the first team staff and coaches as well.”

Finally, acknowledging the role of his family in his career, he expressed: “Yeah, my mum and dad have been a massive support for me from a young age, taking me to training. Yeah, I can’t fault them at all, but I also want to mention my brother as well. He’s really helped me and encouraged me to do well.”