If any Arsenal fans happen to tune into this week’s MLS play-offs they might catch sight of a familiar name on the New York City FC team sheet.
Only six players in Arsenal’s history made their debut at a younger age than Gedion Zelalem, who came off the bench against Coventry City in the FA Cup in January 2014 aged only 16 years. He signed his first professional contract only two months later.
That should have been the start of a rapid ascent to the top for one of the most promising young players ever to come out of the United States. It’s not worked out that way for Zelalem who now finds himself attempting to rebuild a career all over again.
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To this point there’s been injury woe, anguish and the kind of what-could-have-been moments that come to define the careers of potential superstars that never quite turn out that way.
Zelalem was as big a sure bet as you could find in youth football. The coach at Olney Rangers - his formation club in Washington - knew he had a gem on his hands.
Matt Pilkington - who is now coaching New York City’s second team - alerted a certain Danny Karbassiyoon about the talent on his books. Karbassiyoon had been a promising young professional in his own right and had managed to break into the Arsenal first team as a teenager back in 2003. He sadly had to retire from the game aged only 22 due to his own injury troubles and moved into a role as Arsenal’s head of North American scouting.
The American took a look at Zelalem and pointed him out to Arsenal coaching staff at the prestigious Dallas Cup youth tournament. The club was sufficiently impressed to offer Zelalem a trial and he spent 10 days at the club in the summer of 2011. It would be a couple of years from that point before young Gedion would be eligible for a transfer as FIFA law dictated he must be 16 before any deal could transpire.
Even though he lived in Maryland between the ages of 9 and 15, getting a permit to live and work in the UK wasn’t going to be a problem. Zelalem was actually born in Europe - in Berlin, Germany - before his father moved to the States in 2006.
Zelalem Wolydes, an Ethiopian who had been granted asylum in Germany in 1990, took a job as a medical technician in the Washington area, taking his young son with him. Zelalem senior was always the driving force behind his son’s career and it was a tragedy to learn from Gedion’s Instagram account that he passed away in the summer.
Gedion’s mother, it is reported, died in 2005, while his father gave an interview to Ethiopian television in 2018 stating that his daughter, Gedion’s younger sister, had been killed in a traffic accident in the east African country. It initially took some time for Zelalem to be confirmed as eligible for the United States national teams; he had had a choice between the USMNT, Germany and Ethiopia - his father’s country of origin which made serious overtures to get him into the fold.
While he had featured for Germany’s underage sides, his future was eventually pledged to the US. Once his father’s citizenship was confirmed - in 2014 - Gedion became a citizen in his own right under the Child Citizenship Act and was fast-tracked for participation in the US youth ranks.
He played at the 2015 FIFA Under-20 World Cup in New Zealand - scoring a penalty in the quarter-final shootout defeat to a Serbia squad which included Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. He was among the youngest players on the American roster and would remain eligible for the following edition of that tournament in 2017.
But that is where Zelalem’s professional story takes a turn.
Up to then, progress had been unstinting. Having joined Arsenal’s first-team squad in January 2013, he went on tour to Asia the following pre-season and won admirers for the quality and maturity of his performances there. For that, Zelalem remains grateful to Arsene Wenger.
“He’s had a huge impact,” he told NYCFC’s official YouTube channel. “Going to Arsenal at 16, right away he put me into pre-season with the first team. I went on a few pre-season tours, he gave me my debut. He had a lot of belief in me and I’m so thankful for that.”
While comparisons were made to Cesc Fabregas - given the Spaniard’s tender age when he first joined the Arsenal first team - Zelalem was actually inspired by Marcelinho - his favourite Hertha BSC player while a youth-team player in Berlin. He has since remarked that he likes to model his game on the Barcelona pair Xavi and Andres Iniesta.
If only fate had permitted him the chance to showcase those credentials on a consistent basis.
Following his Arsenal debut, he would play three more times for Wenger’s first team - twice in the League Cup and once in the Champions League. That came in December 2014 against Galatasaray when he was only 17 years old.
Although he never managed a minute of Premier League action, Zelalem did sit on the bench twice in the English top flight and the stage was nonetheless set for the ignition of a remarkable career.
That was until the 2017 Under-20 World Cup and the US’s opening game against Ecuador. Just 33 minutes in, Zelalem suffered a severe injury to his ACL - an injury which would force him out of action for over 16 months; one which curtailed his progress and ensured other prospects at Arsenal would overtake him.
There had been relatively successful loan spells in between his Arsenal debut and his disappointing appearance at that World Cup - one at Rangers - where he scored in an Old Firm penalty shootout against Celtic and won the Scottish Championship in 2016 - and another which yielded an Eerste Divisie title with VVV Venlo in 2017.
The remainder of his time on the books at Arsenal would pass without another match in the first team and there was no grand farewell when he moved back to the States in 2019.
“It was a dream come true,” he said of his spell at Arsenal. “I spent six years there. I learned so much. There were definitely tough times. But I feel like I’m still a young player but I've gone through so much. So I have an experienced head.”
Sporting Kansas City would be his destination but - again - he scarcely saw time on the field. It was no surprise when Sporting neglected to pick up an option on Zelalem in 2020 and he was again on the move.
For New York City it seemed a relatively risk-free investment. If they could get him fit, he was a potential world-class talent. If not, well, he wasn’t going to break the bank. The MLS salary guide for the 2020 season reveals Zelalem was making a guaranteed $56,250 a year.
“I know what it takes to be at a top level,” he said. “Unfortunately I had a few surgeries on the knee but I’ve recovered from them. So now I'm just looking to get game time and getting back to the top level because I still believe I can reach that level.”
However, he barely played across his first two seasons at the club due to injuries and was sent off on his first start in the last game of the 2021 campaign against the Philadelphia Union. Zelalem would not play a minute of the subsequent NYCFC play-off run, one that culminated in the MLS Cup title for Ronny Deila’s side.
The ex-Celtic coach, however, spotted something in Zelalem and the player himself speaks fondly of their time together.
“Ronny Deila has been a huge influence on me the past two years,” he said earlier this season. “Having been injured all last year, he’s kept me motivated. I’m so thankful for what he’s done for me so far. I hope to continue to play for him for the near future and the years to come.”
Unfortunately for Zelalem - and for NYCFC - Deila would be tempted back to Europe by the Standard Liege job. That has effectively put paid to whatever progress he’d been making
To this point, Zelalem has played only 11 MLS games this season and seven of those came before Deila departed in June. Interim manager Nick Cushing - a former Manchester City women’s team boss - doesn’t appear to fancy Zelalem, preferring instead to use players like Justin Haak in the centre of midfield.
It’s left Zelalem on the outside looking in for the most part and he’s not expected to play a major role - if any - in the NYCFC play-off campaign upcoming.
He’s only played in the midst of injury and suspension problems or when the side have faced a particularly exhaustive spell of matches. There has been a clamour online and elsewhere among fans to see him in the team but those calls are likely to fall on deaf ears.
NYCFC only signed Zelalem to a one-year deal and initially waived their right to re-sign him after his first season back in 2020. They did, however, come back with an offer before the 2021 campaign started and he signed another one-year deal during the last off-season with an option for 2023 and 2024 worth $84,000.
On current form and trajectory, it would be a surprise if that option was taken up. It means the one-time Arsenal prospect could be on the move again and looking for the form and fitness that once put him on a par with the world’s best wonderkids.
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