West Ham midfielder Jay Mingi has headed to Charlton for a trial, it has been confirmed.
Mingi, 18, played for Charlton’s Under-23s side on Tuesday, with the League One club’s official Twitter account revealing that the defensive midfielder was named as a trialist in their starting line-up.
72' SUB | Trialist Jay Mingi makes way for Sam Keefe. #cafc 2 #bfc 0
— Charlton Athletic FC (@CAFCofficial) April 16, 2019
U23S | The Addicks finish their season by hosting @BurnleyOfficial in SE7 this afternoon.
Here's how we line up ????
XI | Maxwell, Yao, Mingi, Vega, Page, Morgan, Odoh, Forster-Caskey, Doughty, Kalinauskas, Aouachria.
Subs | Harness, Keefe, Stevenson, Ocran. #cafc pic.twitter.com/7dFTetABOc
— Charlton Athletic FC (@CAFCofficial) April 16, 2019
Mingi has never made a senior appearance for West Ham and his deal with the Hammers expires at the end of the season.
OPINION
It is unlikely that Mingi impressed Charlton’s recruitment and youth staff on Tuesday night as he conceded a penalty in the 3-0 win against Burnley’s Under-23s at The Valley. Luckily Burnley’s youth side missed the resulting spot kick, but it doesn’t look too good for the teenager to be giving away penalties while he’s only on trial. It seems as though Mingi might be leaving West Ham in the summer, but that is hardly a shock. The midfield enforcer has only made three appearances in the U18 Premier League for the Irons’ youth side this term and as even though he turns 19 in October, he hasn’t been able to break into the Under-23s squad at the London Stadium. Dropping down to Charlton could be a good move for Mingi because it seems like there’s an easier route into their Under-23s squad. Hopefully he performed well on Tuesday, despite conceding the penalty kick.