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He was not considered good enough for either the Golden Eaglets or the Flying Eagles, but now Bauchi-born Zadok Yohanna, whose Nigerian academy president described him as “my special boy”, is simply on fire in Sweden.
After just a handful of games for one of Sweden’s traditional clubs, AIK Solna, the electrifying 18-year-old winger has caught the attention of the football world with some mind-blowing statistics: he is already averaging a goal or assist every 59 minutes this season, has scored five goals in his last four games and his successful dribbles per game have been phenomenal.
For the opening match of the new season, sofa score awarded Zadok a personal rating of 9.9 points after scoring the winning goal against Halmstad. The man of the match.
It’s still early days, but Zadok is now seen in the same light as one of AIK’s biggest exporters: Liverpool’s Alexander Isak.
In his AIK days, Liverpool’s record signing Isak wore the number 36 shirt, just as Zadok proudly does now.
What a goal Zadok Yohanna scored against BK Häcken. https://t.co/T7QTDxN1YT pic.twitter.com/DgQRp7yM2a
— 🇸🇪 (@SwedeStats) March 10, 2026
Is Kaduna Ikon Allah Academy President Mohammed Ayi surprised at what his little gift to AIK has become in a short time?
“We are all excited by what Zadok has done in such a short time,” he responded.
“He is my ‘special boy’, who is just starting out and will soon rub shoulders with some of the most important players in world football.
“He is money in the bank, a player capable of defining his own generation.”
Ayi himself admitted that he first had his fears when the player’s older brother first took him to his academy at the tender age of 13.
“The ball was bigger than the child,” he said.
“I stood by one of the goal posts, thinking deeply about what this journey will be like, but even then something told me there was something special about it, that it was just how to get this out there for the rest of the world to see.”
SCORENigeria learned that both the country’s U17 team, the Golden Eaglets, and their U20 counterpart, the Flying Eagles, rejected him when he tried out for them.
First it was the Eaglets class under coach Nduka Ugbade and subsequently Zadok was sacked by coach Aliyu Zubairu of the Flying Eagles even after his long time with the team at the training camp in Katsina.
The salvation will be a foreign scout, Herish Sadi, who literally risked his job to be given his first professional contract by AIK when he turned 18 last June.
He got the AIK president to close the deal for the boy the first day he saw him.
Zadok took advantage of the opportunity, was the shining star of AIK U19 and even managed to score three goals in cup matches with the main team.
The president of the Ikon Allah Academy revealed that interest in the youngster began last year, when he played mainly with the under-19s.
“I know that several big clubs were already monitoring the boy even then because he had a big impact,” Ayi told SCORENigeria.
Top Belgian team Club Brugge have now joined the likes of Chelsea and Ajax in signing Zadok.
Reports from Sweden suggested that up to 30 scouts from across Europe were at the derby between AIk and IF Brommapojkarna.
Zadok provided an assist for the first goal as AIK cruised to a 2-1 away victory before their local rivals equalized in stoppage time to split the points on Monday night.
The question now is when and how much will AIK get out of this wonder boy.
The club from the Swedish capital wants at least 15 million euros and other sources even suggest much more.
This summer it may be too early for big clubs to pony up a small fortune for a promising talent like Zadok, who still has a long way to go.
But in the transfer market anything is possible and that’s why they nicknamed it “the silly season.”
