West Ham United striker David Moyes is hoping to give some minutes to teenage striker Divin Mubama during Monday’s FA Cup tie against Derby County.
The 18-year-old has already played twice for the first-team this season, making his senior debut during a 3-0 against FCSB in the Europa Conference League in November before coming off the bench to earn a Premier League debut at Arsenal on Boxing Day.
This season, Mubama has scored 15 goals in 20 appearances for West Ham’s under-21s and under-18s in all competitions, leading to him training with the first-team squad this week.
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West Ham only have one fit senior striker available for their FA Cup trip to Pride Park in Michail Antonio, with Danny Ings and Gianluca Scamacca both out. Moyes admits he is a fan of Mubama’s and if he can use him against League One side Derby on Monday night, he fully intends to.
"I would like to have Divin involved - I like him around the group,” Moyes told football.london. “He gives us great energy, he's a great runner.
“He is still off it a little bit but if I could get him involved I certainly would because he has got a brilliant attitude. He is willing to work and run for the team - he is a real team player, which I really like.
“We like him and think he has got a chance. He's probably a little bit before his time but we've seen him in Europe and he came on in a [mid]-season game and has done well.”
Mubama, who started the season slowly at youth level, has significantly kicked on in recent months ever since making his debut for the first-team in Bucharest in a game where his second half header led to Joyskim Dawa scoring an own goal in the 3-0 victory.
At youth level since that night in the Europa Conference League just under three months ago, he has scored 15 goals in 11 youth appearances, including a hat-trick against Feyenoord’s under-21s and braces against Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield United for the under-18s.
Mubama also got a chance to impress Moyes in the Hammers’ final mid-season friendly at Fulham during the World Cup break last month and while it was only a cameo outing, Moyes was very impressed by it, handing him a Premier League debut nine days later.
"He's a boy who acts like 'wow, what a chance I've got here'," Moyes added. “He's grateful, there is great humility in him, he's humble with the work he wants to do and is willing to do. We asked him to go on and just chase people down (against Fulham in December) and he was unbelievable at it.
“He nearly got a standing ovation from the West Ham supporters because of his commitment and effort and from that point of view I have included him more because he has shown the basic ingredient and we have said 'we're having a bit of that'.”
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