‘Going to show Mikel’: 16-year-old vows to become Arsenal number one under Arteta

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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta surprised everyone when he called up 16-year-old goalkeeper Alexei Rojas Fedorushchenko to first-team training this week.

A number of Arteta’s men were away on international duty. Bernd Leno was with Germany for their games against Liechtenstein and North Macedonia, while Aaron Ramsdale was a part of the England squad.

That opened the door for a young goalkeeper to come in and experience what training with the first team is really like and Fedorushchenko, to many people’s surprise, got his opportunity.

The young goalkeeper was asked about his first-ever senior training session at Arsenal this week. He boldly claimed that he wasn’t as excited as people thought he would be, before vowing to show Arteta and the others that he will become the number one at the club one day.

Alexei Rojas Fedorushchenko: I will become Arsenal number one under Arteta

The teenager, a British national born to a Russian mother and a Colombian father, spoke to CNN Espanol this week about his call up to first-team training.

He said: “On Monday, my coach called my father, told him that Mikel Arteta had decided to invite me to train with the first squad. I arrived on Tuesday to train with them and I spoke in Spanish with Mikel and he gave me very good comments.

“Many will think that I was excited, for me it was something different. Having gone to train with the first team on Tuesday, I was going to show Mikel and the club why one day I am going to be the starting goalkeeper of Arsenal FC.”

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Arsenal currently have Ramsdale, Leno, Karl Hein and Arthur Okonkwo in the first-team goalkeeping department. James Hillson, Ovie Ejeheri and Hubert Graczyk are also aiming to become seniors at the Emirates one day.

Fedorushchenko’s path to becoming Arteta’s number one is not straightforward by any means, but the sort of confidence he has at such a young age is not a bad thing at all.

It will be interesting to see what Arsenal’s goalkeeping department will look like at the end of January. Leno is expected by many to move on, which may force Arteta and Edu to dive into the market to sign yet another goalkeeper.