After such an impressive performance on Wednesday night, Chido Obi could be expected to celebrate a little but his week ended up getting even better.
Manchester United battered Chelsea in the FA Youth Cup fifth round, as the 17-year-old was the star of the show.
United put five goals past Chelsea, and of these five it was Chido Obi who scored three to make it seven in three FA Youth Cup games.
Obi is becoming a superstar for United and last week his performances even saw questions asked of Ruben Amorim who suggested the Dane is still developing and placed no sense of urgency on promoting the teenager.
Adam Lawrence labelled Obi a ‘natural goalscorer’ after the performance which saw three strikes that were that of a clinical number nine. With the goal-scoring display, Obi has set up a quarter-final date with Arsenal, his former club, where he arrived at Carrington from in 2024.
Now Amorim has once again been discussing Obi.
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Chido Obi of Manchester United looks on during the The FA Youth Cup 5th Round match between Manchester United and Chelsea at Leigh Sports Village ...
Photo by Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images
Chido Obi joins Manchester United first-team training
Obi’s performance left his teammates raving, and it was clear to see why even forgetting the goals he was impressive in other aspects of the game.
The big No.9 played some excellent link-up play and also contributed defensively as he pressed from the front as per Lawrence’s instruction. After this performance, it appears Obi has once more made the step up into first-team training due to injury problems in the United squad.
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Amorim confirmed the troubles to club media on Friday.
“Was a good week until two days ago, we had some problems, we don’t have players back, maybe we have one or two issues, we are waiting. We have one player who is sick, we will see on the weekend.”
Continuing, Amorim was asked whether this has led to academy talents joining training, such as Obi and he avoided names but confirmed the striker was involved.
“I don’t want to say names. We have to be careful about that. We have problems this week, we called some young players to be in our training. We have some data evaluation. He is one of them.”
This is exciting as it suggests Amorim is considering Obi as an option at some point in the near future – to be collecting data means it is all but inevitable with the club rating him very highly.
Golden opportunity for Obi under Ruben Amorim
With Obi’s inclusion, it would suggest United are suffering from attacking injuries, and it could lead to the 17-year-old – who has 15 goals this season – getting a golden opportunity.
Amorim has shown commitment to youth in his career, and if given the chance we imagine he would do the same for United, with Obi top of the pile.
Given the appalling striker record Joshua Zirkzee and Rasmus Hojlund have combined, it would not take much for Obi to usurp both and force his way to the senior team.
Obi clearly has designs on becoming a first-team player and makes youth football look like a piece of cake, so if he is also scoring lots in training against Andre Onana then it could be undeniable for Amorim.
Even if he doesn’t play, it would be great to see Obi involved in the first-team and maybe pick up a cameo here or there. Baptism by fire can sometimes be the best way, as Marcus Rashford proved some nine years ago.