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Norwich have won the race to sign a Kent teenager who was playing non-league football less than two years ago.
The Premier League side have met Coventry City’s £3m asking price for Sam McCallum, from Herne Bay.
The transfer marks a meteoric rise for the talented 19-year-old – leaping seven tiers of the football league in just 18 months.
He was playing for Herne Bay FC in the Isthmian South East Division and finishing his A-levels at Simon Langton Boy’s Grammar in Canterbury in the summer of 2018, when he was signed by Coventry.
Last month Premier League leaders Liverpool had been tipped to secure Sam’s signature.
But instead, the teenager has signed for bottom club Norwich, in a deal which will see him go back on loan to the Sky Blues for the rest of the season.
If the Canaries were to defy the odds to stay in the Premier League, the talented defender could soon be tasked with stopping superstar forwards such as Liverpool’s Mo Salah and Man City’s Raheem Sterling.
If Norwich are relegated, Sam will be playing in the Championship come August.
The prospect of more game time may have influenced his decision to join his new club.
But with Coventry able to go top of League One if they win their games in hand, Sam may find himself lining up against his former team-mates next season.
According to respected football correspondent David Ornstein, Sam signed for Norwich yesterday.
Speaking to canaries.co.uk this morning, Sam said he liked the club's philosophy of bringing through young players - and he was attracted by the team's style of play.
Norwich manager Daniel Farke described the left-back as an "interesting talent", adding: "We are all excited by his potential."
As Sam puts pen to paper on a contract keeping with the club through to the summer of 2024, he might reflect on how it could have all been so different.
At the age of 15 he feared his hopes of a career in football were over after he was dropped from Gillingham’s academy.
Despite this, the determined youngster continued playing and broke into Herne Bay’s first team.
But it was his performances at the V9 Academy – set up by Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy to spot non-league talent – which caught the eye of scouts at Coventry City.
“He’s come a long way in a short space of time,” Sam’s dad John Warden told KentOnline last month.
“We still pinch ourselves. He still can’t believe that just over a year ago he was still playing for his local club.”
Last year, Sam told KentOnline that playing in the Premier League is “obviously still a dream”.
“If I went all the way it’d be so big for me because I’m one of those millions of kids who have wanted it,” he added.
“But at the moment I’m focusing on trying to get the starting position at Coventry and then see where it goes from there.
“I’m definitely living the dream.”
