FORMER West Ham defender Reece Oxford has gone from being rated higher than Declan Rice to Bundesliga obscurity.
The centre-back, 25, broke through in East London at the age of just 16 when he started in a 2-0 win away at Arsenal.
He was playing regularly with Rice – a defender at the time – in the West Ham academy and won the U21 Premier League Cup with him in 2016.
And trainee Lewis Page has since revealed Oxford was ahead of the now Arsenal man in the pecking order.
He told The Athletic: “I remember having a conversation with him after dinner. Dec [Rice] wasn’t sure if he was going to get a scholarship with West Ham.
“He got released by Chelsea and he was worried it was going to happen again.
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“I was always confident he was going to get one, but at the time the club weren’t sure what was Dec’s best position.
“Reece was the main talent at centre-back and I’m not sure if the club thought Dec was good enough to play in midfield. You had Josh Cullen and Ben Marlow who were ahead of him.
“But West Ham took the chance and it’s paid off ever since.”
Rice ended up playing 245 games for West Ham and becoming club captain.
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He also lifted the Europa Conference League, before he secured a £105million move to Arsenal and is now one of the highest-rated midfielders in world football.
Meanwhile, Oxford was sold to Augsburg in 2019 after just 17 appearances for the first team.
And while he has played 80 times for the Bundesliga outfit, he has not featured since November 2022.
Oxford has endured muscular problems over the last 12 months, the latest in a long line of setbacks.
He also suffered a meniscus tear in July 2021 and battled long Covid last season.
He has played just three games since the end of the 2021/22 campaign.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
