{"id":208,"date":"2026-02-24T13:51:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T13:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/?p=208"},"modified":"2026-02-24T13:51:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T13:51:51","slug":"maalik-hashi-signs-first-professional-contract-interview-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/?p=208","title":{"rendered":"Maalik Hashi signs first professional contract | Interview | News"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Maalik Hashi was delighted to sign his first professional contract, calling it a \u201cproud moment\u201d for himself and his family.<\/p>\n

The creative midfielder joined us in December 2022, and having worked his way up to under-18s level, has penned his first pro deal as a Gunner.<\/p>\n

Joined by his family at the Sobha Realty Training Centre, our midfielder explained what signing the first senior contract of his career meant to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited, it\u2019s a proud moment for me and my family,\u201d Maalik said, \u201cIt\u2019s not only me on this journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my family with me as well and helping me every day to get better. I started probably in the garden with my dad, just doing kick ups and then found my way at Arsenal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen from there, got the two years to under-16s, then got my scholarship and now we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n

Maalik has already experienced success as a Gunner, being part of the team that won the U16s Premier League Cup last season.<\/p>\n

The 17-year-old feels the experience of playing in a cup final will be valuable as he pushes forwards with his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really good feeling, it was playing as a team, getting through tough games and then getting to the final as well was a big moment in itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think winning it is very good. The experience for the boys and I playing in big games, I think helps us get used to playing in big moments, playing under pressure and staying calm, that really helps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

\n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n

U16s win 2024\/25 Premier League Cup <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n

Since his success with our under-16s, Maalik has made the step up to our under-18s side, which means training and playing at the Sobha Realty Training Centre.<\/p>\n

He described the experience of being in and around our first team squad as \u201cmesmerising,\u201d singling out Declan Rice as a player he\u2019s particularly inspired by.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being around the first team, just looking up to them and taking notes of how they work on themselves day in, day out and just seeing how they work is really inspirational.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Declan\u2019s) attitude, every time he comes in, he\u2019s always smiling, ready to train, ready to put the work in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s a big inspiration for a lot of other young players as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

This deal is subject to the completion of regulatory processes.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

\n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n

Young Gun: Maalik Hashi <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maalik Hashi was delighted to sign his first professional contract, calling it a \u201cproud moment\u201d for himself and his family. The creative midfielder joined us in December 2022, and having … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}