Teenage prospect Tawanda Chirewa has joined Premier League club Wolves having turned down a new deal at Ipswich Town this summer.
The Blues will receive a compensation fee for the 19-year-old attacker. Paul Lambert handed Chirewa his senior debut as a sub at Colchester, in a Papa Johns Trophy match, back in November 2019. Aged 16 and 31 days at the time, he became the second youngester player in the club’s history behind Connor Wickham and subsequently signed a pro deal.
The Chelmsford-born teenager went on to start a Papa Johns Trophy game at Cambridge United last October and come off the bench in the 4-0 FA Cup win against Buxton at Portman Road the following month.
Wolves’ academy manager Jon Hunter-Barrett said: “It’s one that we’re delighted to get over the line. We’ve been watching Tawanda for a while now, since the age of 16, and monitoring his progress before picking the right opportunity to approach and get him across for his services.
“His key qualities are his handling of the ball in tight areas and an ability to get the team up the pitch to create and score from deep areas.
“As always, with one of our key strategies of looking at loan opportunities for our players at the right time, the departures of Harvey (Griffiths) and Alfie (Pond) and steady progression of one or two others into the first-team squad, it was important we strengthened our U21s to ensure they have the ability to compete throughout the season.”