Ugandan Cranes midfielder joins Sheffield Wednesday | Sbk Sports Mail

Ugandan Cranes midfielder Jayden Onen has completed a permanent transfer to Sheffield Wednesday following a successful trial spell with the League One club.

The 20-year-old has been a free agent since leaving Reading at the end of last season and has spent time training with the Owls this season and featured once for Lee Bullen’s Under-23s side. He bagged an assist in their 1-1 draw with Coventry City back in September.

The midfielder who can play in the centre and on the wing expressed his excitement after signing terms at the club and revealed that the little taste of first team football last season with Reading made him hungry for more.

“I’m delighted to get it all signed and sorted and my main focus is to get as fit as I can.
“I got a little taste of first team football last season with Reading and made my debut against Norwich – it’s made me hungry for more. I know what I need to do and where I want to be.

“I had a good week training here, spent time with the first team and the lads were very welcoming and now I just want to push on.

“I played in the game at Coventry and I thought we played really well that day, there were a lot of young lads from the club playing but they did well and now I can’t wait to get started.” - Onen said after completing his transfer 

Onen whose ancestors originate from Zombo, began his career at the Arsenal FC Youth until November 2017, played for Brighton and Hove U18 team in the 2017/18 season were he played in the Premier league U18 making sixteen appearances.

Brentford originally signed Onen in 2018 as a free agent on a one and half-year deal with an option to extend his stay at the club for one more year which would have kept him at the club up to the summer of 2021 but few months back the club arrived at a decision to release him.

He made 48 appearances for the B team prior to his release at the end of the 2019–20 season and a one-month loan at National League club Bromley in late 2019 yielded just one injury time substitute appearance.

Onen, who is yet to make his debut appearance for Uganda holds British citizenship but FUFA before Covid-19 was working around the clock to ensure he attains duo citizenship before the 2022 Cameroon AFCON qualification double header tie against South Sudan which were later postponed postponed due to the outbreak of the deadly Corona virus worldwide.

The fleet-footed offensive midfielder participated in the Uganda Cranes training camp in Dubai in October 2020 and was part of the provisional Cranes squad summoned by former Uganda Cranes head coach Johnathan Mckinstry that could have welcomed South Sudan on 28th March before travelling to play away from home on 31st March in Group B of the 2022 Cameroon AFCON qualifiers.