Ayo Oyelola: Ex-teammate of Mason Mount and Declan Rice with eyes on NFL career

Once a Chelsea prospect alongside the likes of Mason Mount, Declan Rice and Tammy Abraham, former striker Ayo Oyelola is now looking to fulfil his NFL dreams as safety for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The 23-year-old was assigned to the Florida franchise in March as part of the International Pathway Programme – a scheme instituted in 2017 aimed at helping elite international athletes break into the NFL.

England’s Efe Obada was part of the initial intake and became the first IPP player to make a 53-man roster, playing for the Carolina Panthers and Buffalo Bills before joining the Washington Commanders.

Oyelola is looking to follow in those footsteps, having joined the Jags just five years after falling in love with the sport by watching clips of New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley during lectures.

“I watched the Super Bowl but I didn’t really watch football like that,” he told the PA news agency.

“Just the way he played, it inspired me. I wanted to be a running back at first but I got put on defence so I just ran with it.

“I think safety perfectly suits my skillset. I think I could have been the running back too but I love defence. I prefer it.”

Oyelola started playing American football at the University of Nottingham alongside his law degree and found it a tough learning curve.

“At the start I had no idea what I was doing,” he said. “I questioned many times, ‘do I actually want to do this?’

“I’d played high level sports all my life and then all of a sudden I’m one of the guys who just doesn’t know what he’s doing.

“But I believed in myself, kept pushing and things started to make sense after a couple of months. I started playing well and just kept on going.”

That drive put him on course for the NFL having initially