Arsenal and Chelsea are battling over a deal to sign highly rated Middlesbrough centre-forward Cruz Ibeh, according to TEAMtalk.
Within Middlesbrough’s academy setup, the 17-year-old has quickly stood out, emerging as one of the most exciting and highly regarded talents coming through the club’s famous youth system, which has produced the likes of Ben Gibson, Hayden Hackney, Djed Spence, and Marcus Tavernier.
He made his first team debut for Boro last month in the 3-1 defeat to Fulham at Craven Cottage, featuring for the last ten minutes of the game.
Despite the defeat, it was a proud moment for Cruz, who has been with the club since joining at the under-9s level, as he became the 12th Boro Academy product in the last three seasons to make his senior debut for the club while also becoming the 11th youngest debutant in the club’s history at 17 years, 2 months, and 25 days.
With eight goal contributions for the youth setup in the ongoing campaign, TEAMtalk reports that Ibeh’s performances have drawn interest from several clubs, including Arsenal and Chelsea, who are now looking to poach him next summer.
Prospect
The youngster is also attracting interest from Liverpool and Manchester City, who are closely monitoring his situation as they look to poach him away from Middlesbrough, according to the report.
However, amid interest from other clubs, the report adds that Arsenal and Chelsea are ‘pushing hard’ to land the centre-forward widely regarded as one of the best attacking prospects the North Yorkshire outfit have produced in recent years.
The Premier League giants are now accelerating their scouting efforts on the youngster ahead of next summer’s transfer window despite Middlesbrough’s keenness to retain him at the Riverside Stadium.
Arsenal have made elite youth recruitment a priority in recent seasons, aiming to reinforce the talent already at the Hale End Academy. They recently signed talented Colombian twins Edwin and Holger Quintero, while highly rated Stoke City centre-back Jaden Dixon and St Mirren striker Evan Mooney joined before the winter transfer deadline.
Chelsea, on the other hand, has utilised a youth-driven recruitment strategy since the Todd Boehly-led consortium takeover of the club, which has seen the likes of Willian Estevão and Andrey Santos join the first team, where they have been thriving.
Ibeh would undoubtedly be a massive coup for either of the London giants, so it’ll be interesting to see which club wins the race to sign him next summer.
