Stoke City are believed to have been scouting Glentoran’s breakthrough winger Aaron Wightman.
The 19-year-old right-sided midfielder has been attracting attention from English clubs in his first season of regular senior football, making 11 starts and 11 sub appearances as his club have secured the Northern Ireland league’s final European spot. He has held down a starting place as the campaign has gone on, starting all five matches after the division split into top and bottom halves, as well as two subsequent play-off games
Stoke, Leicester City, Brighton and Hove Albion and Lincoln City have been watching his progress according to our colleagues at BelfastLive.
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Wightman has come through the ranks at Glentoran and represented Northern Ireland at youth level.
Coach Rodney McAree said earlier in the season : “I think Aaron has the capabilities of going on to bigger and better things again. I think he has the capabilities of maybe going across to England.
“But that is up to Aaron to continue putting in the hard work he is putting in at this moment in time. There is a very bright future in front of Aaron and as long as he keeps the head down he should do alright.”
Stoke have kept an eye on talent coming through in Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland in recent years, most notably with Nathan Collins, who joined at 14 – although players now can’t move from the Republic to England until they are 18 due to Brexit rules, which Premier League clubs have been challenging.
Forward Dara McGuinness joined the under-21s from Shamrock Rovers last summer while defender Josh Roney spent two years with the Potters after joining from Linfield. Ethon Varian moved back over the water last summer and has since played for Bohemians and Cork City.
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