West Ham United’s Divin Mubama wants to make his mark

The 18-year-old striker featured for David Moyes’ men once again at Stade Rennais at the weekend, as the Hammers suffered their first defeat of the summer.

And the academy graduate caught the eye once again during his second-half cameo in the 3-1 loss, having already netted against Perth Glory, Tottenham and Dagenham & Redbridge.

“Games like the Stade Rennais one are so good for me,” he told West Ham TV. 

“It’s great learning. Every day now I’m playing against men and I’m in and around this team, testing myself against some good clubs, and that’s how you’re going to learn and that’s how you’re going to improve. 

“I need to just keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully I’ll keep getting opportunities. 

“I’m being asked to keep hold of the ball and keep getting the team higher up the pitch. It’s about working hard and sometimes doing the dirty work.

“But I think that’s stuff I have in my game already. It’s nothing new, but I can get better at it too. I’m learning and I want to keep learning.

“Being consistently around the first team has been the main goal for me. It’s so good. 

“I want to play as many games as I can and keep impressing the manager when I get the chance to.

“The only thing I can do now is keep doing the right stuff in training, keep impressing in training, and that hopefully leads to more opportunities like these sorts of games. 

“They matter for me because it lets me get a runout, and this one was another 45 minutes in the bank. Hopefully more opportunities are to come.”

Mubama was by far the youngest member of the Hammers squad on duty in France, as some of the senior players got their first minutes of pre-season.

And the Newham teen hopes to impress in Germany to ensure he remains in the picture as the Premier League opener at Bournemouth on August 12 approaches.

“It’s another game in our pre-season schedule and the lads are getting close and closer to where we want to be. The Premier League is starting soon and, although we didn’t get the result we wanted in this game, it’s about the fitness at this stage,” he said. 

“Stade Rennais, they are a good team tactically, and we got picked off a little bit at times. But it’s something we can learn from and we’ll do that, and go again next week at Bayer Leverkusen. 

“The games are going to get tougher and tougher. With Leverkusen next week, again that’s going to be another tough game. 

“We just want to make sure we’re fully prepared for that and for the Premier League, which is the toughest league in the world. We need to be prepared for what’s to come at the highest level.”