Former Arsenal trainee Steve Zakuani has overcome the odds to become the first pick in the annual SuperDraft for the  upcoming Major League Soccer (MLS) season.

The SuperDraft is an annual event in which the Major League Soccer teams select players who have graduated from college or otherwise been signed by the league.

Each year, the teams that have come at the bottom of the competition get the first picks however this year the first pick has been allocated to Seattle, as they join the MLS as an expansion team for the upcoming season.

Zakuani will join the Seattle Sounders for the 2009 MLS season, the same club that boasts Gunners legend Freddie Ljungberg on its roster.

The striker, born in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, was raised in Wood Green, North London from age four, and was signed as a schoolboy at the age of nine in 1997.

Zakuani spent the next six years training at the famed Arsenal Academy, before a debilitating Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury put his footballing career in jeopardy in 2003.

Following his injury, Zakuani was not offered professional terms at Arsenal. Once recovered, the striker spent three years (2003  until 2006) at London’s Independent Football Academy before joining the University of Akron in Ohia, USA.

In his second year playing for Akron, Zakuani led the scoring charts for his competition, finding the back of the net 20 times over the course of the season.

The pacy striker’s sensational form saw him gaining second place in the running for the Hermann Trophy – the top honour in United States inter-collegiate football.

Zakuani is confident about living up to the expectations of being the number one draft pick, and hopes to make an impact in his debut season for Seattle:

“I’m ready, I want to go in there and I know coach Schmid is a great coach and I’m going to train hard, catch up to the level of play and hopefully contribute right away.”

“I heard a few things a couple of weeks ago that I might be the number one pick but as the draft day got closer I had no idea, right up to the very last second.

“But it’s a great honour and I’m so excited.”

It is great to see someone who  could have easily given up on football to make such a remarkable comeback. It is difficult to motivate yourself to continue with the sport when suffering such a serious injury at such a young age, so Zakuani deserves every accolade he is given in the future.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 16th, 2009 at 4:04 AM and is filed under Arsenal, Ex-Arsenal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.