A promising young player of Nigerian descent, Olawale Akinlabi, has made his debut for Real Madrid’s first team.
Akinlabi was introduced between Sunday’s LaLiga tie between Real Madrid and Real Sociedad in the 70th minute.
He replaced Rodrygo but unfortunately, his presence could not change the complexion of the final result as Real Madrid were held to a barren draw by their hosts.
Akinlabi, also referred to as Marvin, was born in the Spanish city Palma de Mallorca, but could play for different countries because his father is Nigerian and his mother from the Korea Republic.
Before getting the nod of manager Zinedine Zidane to play for Los Blancos, Akinlabi has been with the Real Madrid Youth team where he is doing quite well which explains his drafting to the senior squad.
Before he moved to Real Madrid Castilla in 2016, Marvin had his development at various clubs’ sides such as Sporting Ciudad de Palma, Tranmere Rovers, Sporting Ciudad de Palma, La Salle, and Es Jonquet Penya Arrabal.
While there are reports that Nigerian football officials have made attempts at luring Akinlabi to play for the country, the young midfielder seems better disposed to playing for the Spanish national team having already starred for the Junior team of the European country.
More of Akinlabi is expected to be seen in the LaLiga this season as Real Madrid try to defend their league title.
Apart from Akinlabi, there are other full-blooded Nigerians plying their trade at the Spanish top division.
Samuel Chukwueze with Villarreal, Ramon Azeez with Granada as well as Kelechi Nwakali with Huesca are top on the list of Nigerians in the LaLiga this season.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
