Former Owl pens deal at League Two club

A young winger who signed and left Sheffield Wednesday without making a single appearance last season has joined a new club.

Zain Silcott-Duberry, 20, linked-up with The Owls on a free transfer in the latter part of the 2025/2026 campaign to help boost numbers but he did not play a single minute for the first-team and departed in the summer.

The attacker, previously of Chelsea, Bournemouth and Olympiacos B, has now penned an initial one-year contract at newly-promoted League Two outfit Rochdale after impressing on trial in a match against Farnham Town. He also provided an assist in a friendly against Halifax straight after his arrival was announced.

“It’s a pleasure to be here,” he said. “For me, I felt the trust from the gaffer, and I instantly wanted to be a part of this. The club feels very positive, and it gives me a feeling that we’re going to do good things together. Hopefully there’s a lot to come from me and the club itself.”

Rochdale head coach, Ian Watson, added: “Zain has really impressed me since coming in with us. His attitude in training has been really good, and I thought he lit Saturday’s game up when he was subbed on. He’s an exciting player, and we’re ready to push and drive him to get to where he wants to be.”

Silcott-Duberry, who has represented England at youth level, made his Premier League debut with Bournemouth in the 2024/2025 campaign. Wednesday signed him from Olympiacos B in Greek Super League 2.

After joining Wednesday, he said: “I’m very happy to be here and I think it’s important for me to be here with the current situation that’s going on. Obviously I want to prove myself, I want to make the fans happy, get people off their seats and improve. This is a big challenge for me.

“They had interest in January and then around that time I terminated to become a free agent. I thought ‘why not take the chance to play football until the end of the season?’ I know a couple of the players here which is good, I know about the club and I know how big the club is and I’ve watched them over the last couple of years. I thought why not come to try and help the squad but also try to help myself as well.”