Ahead of Yankuba Minteh’s imminent move to St James’ Park, we’ve been speaking to Toke Møller Theilade – a Danish football journalist and editor-in-chief at Vilfortpark.dk.
Without further ado, here’s what Toke sent us, giving us a must-read scout report on our latest U21 addition:
In the summer of 2022, an 18-year-old midfielder from Gambia went on trial at Odense Boldklub (OB). As per usual with trialists from Africa, the coaches didn’t really know what to expect from the young Gambian, and it required two trials with the club before they decided to sign him. He was given a two-year deal, proof of them needing a quick out as they were yet to be completely convinced of the midfielder’s potential.
Now, almost a year later, the young midfielder, Yankuba Minteh, is on the verge of joining Premier League giants Newcastle and become OB’s biggest ever sale after taking over the Danish Superliga in his European debut season.
A fairy tale story
OB were cautiously optimistic when announcing the signing of Minteh. After his arrival from Gambian club Steve Biko FC, he started on the U19 team in the academy. OB wanted to slowly adapt him to Danish football and were ready to be patient with the young winger.
“It is a two year deal, and I hope that after the first year, we have seen what he can do, and that he has developed enough for us to take the next step with him,” Tonny Hermansen, head of OB’s academy, said after signing Minteh.
“Whether it takes a month, two months or a year before we move him into the first team, we haven’t decided. We want him to find himself in our way of playing football, our culture and generally, so he can be integrated in our college, where he’ll be together with our players and others,” Hermansen finished.
In the end, it took Minteh only two games on the U19 team, before he had proved enough for Hermansen and the rest of the coaching staff.
He came on as a sub with eight minutes left of the Superliga match against FC Copenhagen in the beginning of September, and he made an immediate impact. Despite not being an official member of the first team, and thus not having his name at the back of his shirt, Minteh scored the winning goal to 2-1 just three minutes after entering the pitch.
It was a story so incredible that not even the famous writer Hans Christian Andersen, who was born and lived in Odense, could have written it better.
From there, there was no looking back for Minteh that autumn. The right winger became a regular in the starting line up after his debut, and in the next three matches he contributed with three assists before officially earning a spot in the first team squad, and thus his name on the back of the jersey.
And Minteh didn’t only do it against the weak opponents. He scored the beforementioned winner against Copenhagen, and also showed off his talent with good performances against FC Midtjylland, Brøndby IF and FC Nordsjælland.
Before the winter break, Minteh had five goal contributions in seven games, and had been called up to the Gambian national team for the first time. It was obvious to all Superliga observers that OB had found an African diamond in the fast winger.
Going into the January transfer window, it was clear that OB had to fight to keep Minteh on the books. Several prominent destinations were looking at the winger, and at the end of the transfer window the first rumours of Newcastle’s interest appeared in the media.
Despite the interest, OB managed to keep the winger at the club, hoping that a good finish to the season could increase his value even further. But the spring didn’t go exactly as intended for neither OB nor Minteh.
The club failed yet again to finish in the top six and qualify for the championship round of the league, while Minteh caught several negative headlines for off the pitch episodes.
He was spotted at a nightclub before a match and forced to watch the game from the stands. Afterwards, he was threatened, online and verbally, by fans who were unhappy with his behaviour, which lead to him missing time due to stress.
Later he received a one match ban by the league after kicking and destroying a corner flag following a substitution, while he was also caught in a fight with a teammate during training.
Despite the issues, which were mostly written down to him still being a young man, Minteh managed to erase all doubt about his talent in the spring.
What does Minteh bring to Newcastle?
Although only spending a year in Denmark, Minteh has quickly integrated into European football. Despite the issues in the spring, he’s grown as both a player and a man over the year, which was one of the reasons behind OB’s quick promotion to the first team.
In his 17 games, he started 15 and finished the year with four goals and four assists. From the beginning, it was obvious for anybody that Minteh is not afraid of the spotlight, and that he has a tremendous amount of confidence. He doesn’t shy away from taking on opponents with his dribbles and he isn’t afraid of going towards the goal.
Young players, especially of African descent, are often described as ‘raw’, but that isn’t the case with Minteh. Although he obviously lacks experience, he is pro-ready. His decision making is at a high level, and he is tactically smart.
The Gambian is extremely good in one-on-one situations, where he can challenge with both his sharp dribbles and his incredible speed.
He is also well liked among his teammates, who only have good things to say about him. He is always praised for his skills, and several OB players have encouraged the Danish audience to enjoy watching Minteh while they could, as they predicted him to go to bigger challenges soon.
“It’s been crazy,” teammate Baskhim Kadrii said about Minteh. “He came in and has unleashed himself. He was given trust, and has taken the chances and performed insanely well. He just needs to keep going, but it has been incredible so far.”
“He has only shown a fraction of what he can do,” Kadrii told Bold.dk
When looking at stats per game, Minteh is in elite territory on successful actions, dribbles, touches in the box and progressive runs when compared to the rest of the Superliga wingers. Considering he only moved to Denmark in August without having ever played in Europe before, that is an impressive achievement.
Minteh also proved to be a skilled finisher with four goals on an xG of 3.8 and a scoring percentage of 26.7 %. On top of that, he is great at setting up teammates. Despite only playing 17 games, only 13 players in the Superliga had more assists than Minteh, and he created 15 chances in total with five of them being deemed big chances according to the official Superliga data.
Minteh turns 19 next month, and while the step from the Superliga to the Premier League is significant, his talent should more than make up for it. He has already shown himself capable of elevating his level rapidly when the level of the challenge heightens. While he might need a little more than the two weeks it took him to conquer Denmark, there is no doubt that Newcastle is getting one of the most exciting young players in Scandinavia in Minteh.
