Noni Madueke: ‘Players are realising there is a world outside of England’

Noni Madueke is one of England’s most prodigious talents, a tricky winger with electric pace and as a driven 16-year-old at Tottenham his dancing feet were in a hurry to reach the top. “I just wanted to be integrated into a first-team setup as quickly as possible. “I thought: ‘What’s the quickest way to do that and still maintain a good standard of football?’ PSV was the answer,” says Madueke, who will line up against Leicester in the Europa Conference League quarter-finals on Thursday. “It wasn’t difficult to come here because I was clear in what I wanted.”

Madueke, who was also courted by Chelsea and Manchester United, says it did not feel an especially brave call and his decision in 2018 looks wiser by the minute. Jadon Sancho’s move to Borussia Dortmund a year earlier provided inspiration and Madueke’s impressive progress means more will surely follow. Madueke, who was born in Barnet, believes he was the first English player to join an overseas club before becoming a scholar and says he and players such as Jude Bellingham and Jamal Musiala, who left Chelsea for Bayern Munich, have helped buck a trend.

“I think I was the first one to do it at 16,” Madueke says. “I wasn’t really worried about moving country. Football is football. Players are realising there is a world outside of England, there are other leagues in the world that can help you reach your end goal.

“Most of the boys want to come back anyway to prove themselves in England, but to get to that status where a club wants to buy for a lot of money, I feel like you have to play games.”

It is hard to take in that Madueke turned 20 last month. He is considered and speaks with an air of confidence that has served him well on the pitch, becoming one of PSV’s key