At the weekend, Chido Obi-Martin revealed he’d signed his first professional contract at Manchester United. On Friday, the youngster turned 17 years of age, making him eligible to sign the pro deal.
On Tuesday, the striker made his debut for Manchester United U21s in their 1-0 win over Rochdale. He came off the bench in the 80th minute and two minutes later, assisted Amir Ibragimov’s winner.
Behind the scenes, Denmark are making firm efforts to make sure the Manchester United rising star ends up representing them in the future. That’s according to Danish football association’s talent manager, Kenneth Heiner-Møller, and he revealed this to BT.
Obi-Martin was born in Denmark and has already represented them from U16 to U21 so far.
Losing him to Nigeria would be a big blow for them. Heiner-Møller is also aware that they can’t do a lot to persuade him to pick Denmark.
“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,” he said.
“That [losing him] would be very sad. 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.”
The talent manager has made it clear the Manchester United talent won’t be called up for Denmark’s senior team just to secure his future.
“I hope that Chido will play for the Danish national team. But I can guarantee you that he will never, ever be selected for the senior team only with the aim of tying him to Denmark,” Heiner-Møller explained.
“I’m well aware there are some other countries that look at this sort of thing differently. 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.”
