For a young striker like Divin Mubama, playing against a team like Stade Rennais is an amazing opportunity to develop.
At 18-years-old, the forward was comfortably the youngest member of David Moyes’ West Ham United squad that travelled to the Brittany capital for a pre-season clash on Saturday, but once again Mubama was trusted with an opportunity to help his more senior teammates out.
The Academy of Football graduate was a half-time substitute for the Irons at Roazhon Park, continuing a run of playing in every pre-season game so far for the Irons. Against experienced internationals in the French side, Mubama again did not look out of place.
While the Irons suffered a first defeat of the pre-season schedule, a 3-1 loss, Mubama was pleased to get another chance at showing why he has earned first-team opportunities. Manager David Moyes has high expectations of the forward, and the Newham-born player continues to try and match them.
“Games like the Stade Rennais one are so good for me,” he told West Ham TV. “It’s great learning. Every day now I’m playing against men and I’m in and around this team, testing myself against some good clubs, and that’s how you’re going to learn and that’s how you’re going to improve. I need to just keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully I’ll keep getting opportunities.
“I’m being asked to keep hold of the ball and keep getting the team higher up the pitch. It’s about working hard and sometimes doing the dirty work, but I think that’s stuff I have in my game already. It’s nothing new, but I can get better at it too. I’m learning and I want to keep learning.”
As the new season draws ever closer, the manager opted to take a squad comprised almost fully of senior Hammers to Reenes, and the teenage Mubama’s efforts have led to him being kept around the first team environment, as he was during the second part of last season.
It is a position the attacker is not taking for granted, with every minute on the pitch a chance to impress even further.
“Being consistently around the first team has been the main goal for me,” he continued. “It’s so good. I want to play as many games as I can and keep impressing the manager when I get the chance to.
“The only thing I can do now is keep doing the right stuff in training, keep impressing in training, and that hopefully leads to more opportunities like these sorts of games. They matter for me because it lets me get a runout, and this one was another 45 minutes in the bank. Hopefully more opportunities are to come.”
After five pre-season matches, only one more remains. Up next is a trip to Germany to face Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen; another team who, like Stade Rennais will join West Ham in the UEFA Europa League group stage this campaign.
Mubama knows how important being match fit is now, with just two weeks to go until the start of the Premier League season. For him personally, being in the best possible condition may just see him involved in the senior squad when the trip to AFC Bournemouth comes around on Saturday 12 August.
The attacker though is fully focused on building those levels, learning from Saturday, and getting even better.
He added: “It’s another game in our pre-season schedule and the lads are getting close and closer to where we want to be. The Premier League is starting soon and, although we didn’t get the result we wanted in this game, it’s about the fitness at this stage.
“Stade Rennais, they are a good team tactically, and we got picked off a little bit at times. But it’s something we can learn from and we’ll do that, and go again next week at Bayer Leverkusen.
“The games are going to get tougher and tougher. With Leverkusen next week, again that’s going to be another tough game. We just want to make sure we’re fully prepared for that and for the Premier League, which is the toughest league in the world. We need to be prepared for what’s to come at the highest level.”
