Sheffield Wednesday keen to tie down youth international ahead of new season
Sheffield Wednesday are currently in the process of making decisions on the club’s youth players ahead of the summer.
Several youngsters will see their two-year scholarships come to an end in a few months’ time, while a number of the U21s will also come to the end of their current deals having sign professional contracts in recent years.
One player that the club is eager to try and keep around is Canadian youth international, Aodhan Sopala. The 18-year-old began his Owls scholarship in 2024 after progressing through the ranks at Middlewood Road, and has been a regular feature over the past couple of seasons at U18 level.
Now, as the 2025/26 season draws closer to its end, The Star understands that Sopala – who has also represented Northern Ireland – is somebody that Wednesday are looking to give a pro deal to.
He took the step up at the same time as Charlie Hobbs, Daniel Da Costa, Liam Clayton, Kailen Hatfield and Jacob Jessop, and it remains to be seen at this stage how many of them will still be in Owls colours come the start of next season’s U21s campaign.
Sopala played twice for Canada’s U18s towards the end of last year, and will be hoping to get further opportunities to show what he can do at international level over the coming months. Stepping up into professional terms at Hillsborough will certainly do his chances of doing so no harm at all.
Youth players are often told their fates before the end of March in order to give them the best opportunity of setting something up elsewhere, which is why the likes of James Ward, Joel Martin and Matty Taylor have been on trial in S6 recently.