Shola Jimoh is a 16-year-old Canadian winger who plays for York United in the Canadian Premier League. He left the Toronto F.C. Academy to turn professional this season and has turned some heads, racking up 3 goals and an assist in a little over 500 minutes. Jimoh has played for Canada at U-15 level.
Jimoh is a left-footed winger who mostly does traditional winger stuff in York United’s system. He stays high and wide, stretching opposition defences. Jimoh is very small, with various online sources listing him as between 5’3 and 5’5. As he’s only 16, he’s also quite slight at this point. Jimoh’s attacking positioning is very good and he is able to frequently receive the ball in space in wide areas. I would like to see him run at fullbacks a little bit more as currently, he has a tendency to hit a cross early, which is not a very high percentage play. This lack of willingness to take players on might partly be down to being 16 and developing confidence playing against men. In transition, Jimoh is very good at finding the open man to progress the attack. His vision is also quite good, and he has demonstrated the ability to play defence splitting passes. His strong positioning also makes him quite good at popping up in the box in high-danger areas. He doesn’t take a huge amount of shots but the ones he does take are almost all from good spots. His dribbling is ok, though not outstanding. I would expect his dribbling to improve as he gets older, stronger, and faster.
Jimoh’s defensive play is really strong, not something you would expect from an undersized teenaged attacker. He presses very aggressively, frequently putting opposition players in tough spots. His short stature sometimes seems to give him an advantage. His low centre of gravity allows him to poke the ball away from players if the ball is bouncing on them or almost slip under them and get to the ball.
Jimoh still has a long way to go but he is having a decidedly positive impact in a professional men’s league at 16. That’s a good sign! It’s particularly impressive that Jimoh is able to do this despite not being a major physical force. His decision-making and high work rate should form a solid base for his development. I don’t think his potential is quite on an Alphonso Davies level (Davies was already playing in MLS at this age) but I think he has the potential to reach the next level down.
Target Scouting 