FRESH from conquering Europe at the Georgia 2017 U19 Championship, England midfielder of Nigerian descent, Adetayo Edun, says he’s not relenting on his rising profile.
The 19-year-old recently returned to Fulham after his exploit with the England U19s who were crowned champions at the event this summer.
The versatile midfielder, who is an academy graduate has already signed a new contract with Fulham that will run until the summer of 2020, has been impressive in the pre-season tune up matches.
Edun is hoping to make an impact on the first team in the coming season. “I am happy to have signed a new deal with Fulham FC. I hope to push on from here and continue the hard work!”
Speaking about his experience at the U19 European Championship, Edun, who had also represented England at U17, and U18 levels previously, said he was a happy to be a part of history.
“My role at the U19 is a bit different from how I play at left-back but being able to play both positions has helped me a lot, not only with England but at my club also,” he enthused.
“I’ve always been told that it’s good to be adaptive to different positions; with the midfielders we have, we can use a range of formations and challenge teams a lot and that helped us. It was hard work from all the boys; we put in a lot of effort.”
He noted being positive made a lot of difference for the team too. “It’s all positive in the squad.”
The journey, Edun confirmed, started from the England U17.
“The story started for me from the U17 squad. I wasn’t sure about the call-up because I had a bit of a rough time, getting sent off twice in my last two games. I was called up to the U17 team in 2015 and since then I’ve received invitation to play for the team.
“I’m quite familiar with a lot of the boys. I even come and see them when I’m away from Fulham. Outside of the club, I’ll go and see some of them now and again, so they’re familiar faces.
“So I’m happy that the coach trusts me in such a big competition and I’m pleased that he hasn’t made any drastic changes and taken me out! I’m happy that he’s trusted me because understandably he would have had a couple of doubts, but I’m ready to go and show him that it’s worth taking me. I’ve never been to South America before so it was a good experience.”
Primarily a full-back – which is where he tends to feature for the national team – Edun is happy to fill in wherever he’s needed for club or country.
“I prefer left-back but wherever you play on the pitch you’ve got to do the job for the team,” he said. “It’s good for me to have that option that I can help out at left-back or centre-mid. As I said, I prefer left-back, but I don’t mind doing a job further forward if needed. I like playing for the 21s a lot. I think Peter Grant’s got a good idea of how to improve us as a team and as individuals. He has a lot of advice for everyone in each and every position. As you can see, this year we’ve started better than we finished last season, so we’re going onwards and upwards.”
Tied to Fulham till 2020, he is of the opinion that the Championship side had good last season. Fulham finished the season on the sixth position missing the playoff by whiskers. “It was tough. We lost a crucial match to Newcastle, which was more of a loss, because if we have them in the Play-Offs now, they could go into it thinking ‘we beat these guys and we can do it again’. We wanted to get the momentum going because we know we are definitely good enough to be in the first division and that’s where we are trying to end up.
“I think the season’s been good, the amount of players that have been in and out of the team, and we’ve still continued to bond. We can still keep the structure and everyone’s on the same page; we can have a chance to get promotion which is key, next season.”
On the soft side, Edun has kind words for his mum whom he calls the biggest influence on his career. “My mum’s actually been my biggest supporter from the beginning; a parent that allows you to pursue your dreams and not theirs, priceless.”
WHO IS TAYO EDUN?
An assertive individual who is comfortable operating anywhere on the left, either as a full-back or wide midfielder. Edun has got excellent determination and is also a strong athlete.
A promising 2014/15 campaign saw him break into both the England Under-17 and Fulham Under-21 setups. He went on to make six appearances for Peter Grant’s side, one of which saw him score the winning goal against Liverpool U21s. He made his senior debut for the club in the 2016/17 season in and EFL Cup 3-2 win over Leyton Orient, playing the full 90 minutes.
He went on to make three appearances for the 1st team. For the Under-23s, Edun played 24 games where he scored three goals, assisted five and created 52 chances, mostly from left back. He was called up to England’s Under-19 team and helped them qualify for the European Championships, scoring a fantastic goal in a qualifier against Norway.
