Lifelong West Ham United fan George Earthy has described signing a professional deal with his boyhood club as ‘a dream come true’.
The 17-year-old was one of seven Academy youngsters to put pen-to-paper on professional terms with the Club last week.
For Earthy, who comes from a long lineage of West Ham supporters, signing professional with his team is a moment he is still pinching himself over.
“It means the world to me,” the midfielder told West Ham TV. “I’ve been a West Ham fan my whole life. To sign my first professional contract here is a dream come true. I was buzzing.
“I was with my family and we were all joyful. It was a great moment. My dad and grandad are over the moon too. All of my family are West Ham fans. We’ve been lifelong West Ham fans, so it means the world.
“I joined the Club when I was really young, really little. Since I was about six, I’ve been in and around Chadwell Heath, training, playing and loving football. I’ve kind of progressed from there. I’ve been at West Ham my whole life and it’s all I’ve known really.”
Earthy has enjoyed a stellar year in Claret and Blue with the U18s, featuring 29 times in all competitions and scoring eleven goals from midfield. Only strikers Divin Mubama and Gideon Kodua managed more for Kevin Keen’s side.
The playmaker’s efforts helped the U18s secure second in the Premier League South, and Earthy takes a lot of pride in our the campaign played out for the team and himself personally.
He continued: “It’s been an amazing year. Our group is a really good group. We’re so together and it’s been an amazing year. We’re unlucky we didn’t win the league but we tried our best.
“To go unbeaten from September all the way to where we did, it was an amazing job that we did. We were unlucky not to win the league to top it off.
“I thought I had a good season, got quite a lot of goals and assists, which is the main target that you want to do. I thought it was a good season for me personally.”
With his professional deal signed, Earthy will now progress to training with Mark Robson’s development team at Chadwell Heath in the 2022/23 season.
The youngster is hopeful of his chances of continuing his development.
“I hope to play in the U23s as much as possible and progress from there, to be honest. The hard work has been going on since I started playing football so the hard work doesn’t start now, it continues.”
