Where are they now? (Akwasi Asante)

Back in 2010 Akwasi Asante was earmarked as one of the hottest young talents in English football. The Dutch born striker burst onto the scene by smashing in five of Blues’s goals in a 6-0 rout against Spurs U18’s. He was tipped by the then Blues boss Alex Mcleish as ‘A massive talent’ and ‘One for the future’. Asante found himself on the periphery of a Premier League side and soon signed his first professional contract, this keeping him at the club until the end of the 2013/14 season.

Injuries then took there toll on Asante and his fledging career. He managed to make just one appearance for Blues, that of which as an 88th minute substitute in the 3-0 Europa League qualifying win against CD Nacional. In an attempt to turn his youth team potential into first team quality, he had various loan spells at Northampton and Shrewsbury. Injury plagued both of those spells with Asante seriously struggling with persistent hamstring knocks. His goal tally backed up his struggles, he scored just two goals in thirteen matches whilst out on loan and failed to prove his fitness to Lee Clark. Asante was released at the end of his contract and it seemed as if all that potential had gone to waste.

After his release from Blues, Asante regained his fitness but took till December 2014 to get himself a new club. In a bid to get himself back up the Leagues, Asante signed for Conference Premier side Kidderminster Harriers on a contract until the end of the season. Things didn’t go to plan for Asante, he failed to break into the Harriers team and made just one league start and nine substitute appearances. As a result,Asante was released by the Harriers and it seemed that the young Dutchman’s career was over.

However, it’s not over yet for Asante, he Is now signed up for Solihull Moors of the Conference North, it shows what a resilient character he is. It seems Asante is determined to get himself back to somewhere near his best, not being scared by the roughness of Non League football. If Asante can hit the ground running with a large amount of goals for the Moors, there’s no reason why the 22 year old striker can’t get himself back into the world of professional football and reach the heights that was once expected of him.