Saulo Looks To Win His Spurs

From the Barking & Dagenham Post - 14/1/09

"SAULO ASAJILE IS not a household name just yet, but the tenacious young footballer, who caught the eye terrorising school sides in Barking and Dagenham with his powerful wing play, has set his sights on making an indelible mark in the game.

Tottenham Hotspur are currently the beneficiaries of the 18-year-old's ability to run at defenders on the right flank with a youthful exuberance and confidence, and the second-year academy player wants to exhibit his talents on the highest stage.

"I want to play first team football this year or next year," he says in unflinching style. "I want to play first team football anywhere. I'd definitely (go down the leagues) to play first team because that's where real football is played. I need to play (senior) football."

The Premier League may be some way off for the teenager, who admitted to still being very much a work-in-progress, but listening to him talk about his ambitions it was possible to detect that this was a young footballer desperate to be unleashed.

Youth team games are one thing but first team football, be it at White Hart Lane or anywhere else, is a completely different proposition and Asajile, with England under-16 honours under his belt, is eager to test his raw skills against fully-developed players.

"I need to improve my game, try to be better. I just enjoy playing football. I don't care where it is.

"It's not about money, it's about getting that experience, maybe lower down, then coming back up," he responds when asked whether he would drop down as low as non-league football if things did not work out at Spurs.

For the moment, Asajile's future remains at the north London club under the watchful tutorship of academy manager Alex Inglethorpe and his assistant John McDermott but the youngster, who models his game on Aaron Lennon, rejects the notion that pulling on a Tottenham first team shirt is more fantasy than reality.

"I don't have a long way to go. I've just got to work hard in every game I play. You never know who's watching. You've got to play every game as if it's your last," says Saulo, who was born in Burundi but attended Eastbury Comprehensive School, where he achieved District honours having come to the attention playing for Monteagle School. "

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Saulo lines up for Monteagle in the Evans-Moore Plate (He's the big one!)