Kamran Kandola signs first professional Wolves deal

The Wolverhampton-born centre-back has spent the last decade in the academy and has now become a regular for the under-18s side.

The 17-year-old is a part of the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Asian Inclusion Mentoring Scheme, which supports and inspires young British Asian’s making a name for themselves in the game.

He has also played for the under-23s and the under-21s in the EFL Trophy this season

Wolves’ technical director, Scott Sellars, said: “We’re really pleased for Kam because it’s always great to see a local boy progress. He’s been here a very long time and I’ve seen his development first-hand for a number of years.

“He’s always been consistent and even when challenges have come his way, he’s really worked hard to overcome them and reach this stage where he’s earned his first professional contract.

“It’s been a real commitment from himself and his family to do this as there’s been a lot of training and a lot of travel for games, all having to be done alongside his schoolwork and education. Kam is a really bright kid, he’s taking his A-levels, so it’s been a massive commitment from everybody, and we’re delighted that commitment has got its reward.”

Kandola is now the only professional footballer at Wolves from a south Asian background and Sellars hopes he can be an inspiration to others.

“Kam is a great representative of the south Asian community in Wolverhampton,” Sellars added.

“There is a real shortage of players from that background in football in general, but we want our club to reflect our local community.

“I’d love to think that south Asian kids growing up in Wolverhampton will see Kam as a great role model because he’s done a lot of work in telling his story and how it has been for him to get to where he’s at.

“Hopefully he’ll inspire more local boys, not only those who share his background, to believe that they can do it because they’ve seen Kam do it.”

Meanwhile, young midfielder Temple Ojinnaka is recovering at home after being rushed to hospital following a clash of heads in Saturday’s abandoned under-18s fixture with Middlesbrough.

With Wolves leading 2-1 and 10 minutes left on the clock, Ojinnaka and Middlesbrough striker Alex Hutchinson collided in the air as he attempted to reach a cross.

The pair were stretchered off the pitch and the game was eventually abandoned.

Under-18 head coach Steve Davis said: “Temple’s ok now. He’s not got much recollection of the clash, but he came round pretty quickly. He got a cut on the top of his eye and that’s been glued back together, and their lad got a cut on the back of his head and went down a bit heavier than Temple did.

“He’s going to have to go through the concussion protocols now which will mean he can’t do anything for the next couple of weeks. He would have played in the under-17 Premier League Cup on Wednesday, but obviously he can’t be involved now.

“We’ll assess him after that to see if he can come back to training, so he’s not going to be involved in the next few weeks and maybe even beyond that.

“He’s only just come back from an injury which put him out for the start of the season. He’s had a lot of set-backs and bad luck, so hopefully next year will bring him a bit more luck.”