Princess Ademiluyi certainly looks to have an incredibly bright future ahead of her.
The 16-year-old forward joined West Ham United at the age of 12, working her way through the pathway and now making her debut in Paul Konchesky’s first team squad.
The powerful forward replaced Lisa Evans in the 83rd minute against Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday afternoon. With the Hammers 1-0 down after Kayleigh Green had headed home just before the hour mark, Konchesky turned to the young striker, who has 11 goals in 17 appearances for the U21s this season to try and find a goal.
The Gravesend native showed some really nice touches and worked hard alongside her teammates to try and get back into the game, but the final whistle came too quickly for the Hammers, who fell to another defeat in the Barclays Women’s Super League.
Ademiluyi had mixed emotions at full time, but the overriding one was how proud she was to make her debut for the first team.
“This is a moment that I’ve been working towards for a long time,” Ademiluyi told whufc.com at the full-time whistle. I’m just buzzing to be honest, I didn’t think this would happen today, so when I got the shout to come on I was really happy.
"Obviously it’s not the result that we wanted as a team, we were knocking on the door towards the end of the game, but we just couldn’t find the goal that we needed.”
A moment that Princess Ademiluyi will never forget! 👏
— West Ham United Women (@westhamwomen) May 8, 2023
From our pathway, to the Academy and now into the first team, the 16-year-old made her senior debut in Claret & Blue yesterday! ⚒️ pic.twitter.com/68yHHqmL5J
Ademiluyi has been used to the first team environment at West Ham United since January, when she began training at Chadwell Heath a number of times a week, whilst also training and playing with the U21s.
Indeed, the forwards exploits in front of goal for the Young Hammers helped them finish in 6th position in the FA WSL Academy League Southern Division, where they amassed 20 points.
“It’s been good to have both sides, seeing the levels that I need to aspire to reach in the first team, but also playing and training with the U21s, it’s kept me working really hard and that’s all I want.
“I want to keep getting better, that’s going to take time, but I feel like I’m developing every day and getting on the pitch is another milestone for me.
“It’s good because it highlights that coming through the academy and playing for the first team can be done – girls will see that players are being given opportunities at West Ham if you work hard enough.
“I’m now a role model and ambassador for the pathway and the younger ones coming through, which is crazy to say because I’m only 16, but I’ve had this experience now and hopefully many more of our young players will too in seasons to come.”
Ademiluyi believes that the Hammers are edging closer to finding the form that they showed during the first half of the WSL campaign.
"It wasn't our day today, she admitted. "I think we had some good chances but not everything fell our way.
"There's still three games for us to pick up points, and we have to do that because we as a group want to finish the season on a positive," she concluded.
Read Paul Konchesky's reaction to the defeat against Brighton, as well as his thoughts on Ademiluyi's debut by clicking here.
