![The teenager who swapped League Two for Roma The teenager who swapped League Two for Roma](https://mynews24x7.in/wp-content/uploads/https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/live-experience/cps/624/cpsprodpb/B928/production/_114200474_mbunyaalemanji.jpg)
[ad_1]
Mbunya Alemanji says he is trying to “keep humble” after swapping Cambridge United for Italian side Roma.
The 16-year-old has signed a three-year contract with the Serie A club, who recruited the forward without having seen him play in the flesh.
The League Two side will receive about £70,000 in compensation and Alemanji is set to link up with Roma’s Under-17 squad initially.
“It is a big move but I’m just trying to prove why I’m there,” he said.
“My friends have been saying to me: ‘Do you realise you’re at AS Roma?’ I’m just trying to keep calm.”
Alemanji was born in Germany but moved to England at the age of three.
He joined Cambridge as a 13-year-old after a six-week trial and was working with both their under-16s and under-18s before moving to Rome.
![Mbunya Alemanji at Roma training ground](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/624/cpsprodpb/12E58/production/_114200477_mbunyaalemanji.jpg)
Alemanji’s agent, who also represents Lyon and Netherlands forward Memphis Depay, sent video highlights of the teenager to Roma’s interim sporting director Morgan de Sanctis earlier this year.
“It was during lockdown – my agent contacted me and said: ‘Roma are interested in you,'” Alemanji told BBC Sport.
“They are such a big team that I didn’t really think much of it.
“The next week he contacted me again and said you might have to travel to Rome in two weeks. I was like: ‘Wow.’ It took longer for it to happen but I eventually signed.”
Alemanji’s contract includes one year as a scholar before he turns professional.
He will live at Roma’s training complex, where he has already been mixing with their star players.
“I came out of my room – we had to do Covid tests – and I saw [former Chelsea winger] Pedro,” he said. “I was shocked.”
[ad_2]
Source link