{"id":845,"date":"2026-03-31T07:53:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=845"},"modified":"2026-03-31T07:53:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:53:48","slug":"young-gun-saurap-sampang-young-guns-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=845","title":{"rendered":"Young Gun: Saurap Sampang | Young guns | News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Our Young Gun series gets to know the academy youngsters kicking off their careers at the Sobha Realty Training Centre.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Saurap Sampang spoke to us recently about his near decade of experience at Arsenal, travelling to Brazil and why he looks up to Gabriel Jesus despite being a midfielder.<\/em><\/p>\n

I grew up in Ashford, Kent, and I started playing football when I was about four. My dad bought me a ball, and I just loved being outside, kicking it around whenever I could. He could see how much I enjoyed it, so he signed me up for a Sunday League team, and that\u2019s really where it all began. <\/p>\n

Both of my parents are from Nepal, and I\u2019m incredibly proud of my heritage. It means a lot to me, and I hope I can inspire more South Asian footballers to keep pushing so we see more of us playing at this level. I can speak a bit of the language too, which keeps me connected to my roots.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been an Arsenal fan my whole life. Growing up, I looked up to players like Messi, for me, the best to ever do it. Around the club, I really admired Mesut Ozil. He was a magician on the ball, so composed and effortless in the way he played. Now, I\u2019d say Declan Rice is someone I look up to. I\u2019m a box-to-box central midfielder, and I\u2019d love to model parts of my game on his leadership, his energy and the way he controls matches.<\/p>\n

One of the Sunday League teams I played for was Ashford United. Through playing in tournaments with them, I was scouted by three academies, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal. I trained with all three, but Arsenal just felt right. I felt more comfortable there, and it felt like home. <\/p>\n

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I joined the under-9s, and I\u2019ve been here ever since. I\u2019ve made so many great memories at Hale End, but one that stands out was when we travelled to Brazil at the under-16 level to compete in the Flamengo Adidas Cup, and we won it. Just being in Brazil was incredible. You really feel their passion for football; it\u2019s everywhere you go. We also travelled to Florida, which was another amazing experience. <\/p>\n

I signed my scholarship in the summer, and it was a surreal moment for my family and me. Everyone was so proud. I found out in a meeting, and I was buzzing, but at the same time, I knew that was just the beginning. The real work starts now. Jack Talbot, Brando Bailey-Joseph and Teshaun Murisa have all been here since under-9s, so to now represent the under-18s is really special.<\/p>\n

Since becoming a scholar at Sobha, I feel like I\u2019ve developed massively. I\u2019m learning every single day. It\u2019s challenging at times, but I enjoy that. I embrace those challenges because they\u2019re what push you to improve. <\/p>\n

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“Arsenal just felt right. I felt more comfortable there, and it felt like home.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I haven\u2019t played as many games for the under-18s as I would\u2019ve liked yet, but recently, I\u2019ve had more opportunities with them, which has been a great experience. It\u2019s definitely a step up, but I feel ready for that level now. I just need to keep taking my chances when they come.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also trained with the first team a number of times. It\u2019s tough; you immediately see the difference. The tempo is so much quicker, everyone is sharper, stronger and faster. <\/p>\n

It takes time to adjust, but it\u2019s an incredible experience and gives you a real insight into what\u2019s required to become a Premier League player. Someone who really stands out in training is Gabriel Jesus; he\u2019s unpredictable, so skilful, and his finishing is top-class.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our Young Gun series gets to know the academy youngsters kicking off their careers at the Sobha Realty Training Centre. Saurap Sampang spoke to us recently about his near decade of experience at Arsenal, travelling to Brazil and why he looks up to Gabriel Jesus despite being a midfielder. I grew up in Ashford, Kent, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}