Eastleigh Football Club are proud to announce that our first-year scholar, Jahiem Dotse, has joined Wycombe Wanderers on a permanent deal following a successful trial period with their development squad.

Jahiem, 17, becomes the youngest player to join the Blues since the closure of their former academy in 2012.

He spent the last three years developing at Eastleigh since joining the Spitfires at U15’s level.

The striker played a key part in the first-years’ league winning campaign last season, regularly earning spots in our ‘Academy Team of the Week’.

Upon this move, our Head of Youth Development, Jason Bristow, said: “We are delighted for Jahiem and wish him every success with his move to Wycombe. He’s the latest in the growing list of our scholars that have impressed Premier and Football League clubs and earnt professional contracts.

“We are excited to follow Jahiem’s progress and he’s yet another example of the excellent work taking place in our Academy and Scholarship program.”

Our Head of Academy, Luke Hardy, commented on this move by saying: “Jahiem started with us at U15’s within the academy at Eastleigh Football Club. The academy gave Jahiem the platform to develop his game across all areas and gave him a pathway to progress onto our full-time scholarship programme. Jahiem continued to progress within our U16’s and Scholarship programme and had plenty of clubs further up the leagues tracking him. 

“All of the coaches who have been a part of his development should be proud of the part they’ve had to play in Jahiem’s progress to earning a professional contract at Wycombe Wanderers. This is just another example of the fantastic pathways we have at Eastleigh FC towards our First Team, but also further afield and higher up the pyramid. We all wish Jahiem the very best in his future footballing career and will watch on fondly.”

Due to football regulations, Wycombe were not required to pay Eastleigh any compensation.

We must stress that our relationship with Wycombe remains a really positive one. We appreciate their need to adhere to the EFL ruling.

Although we are sad to see Jahiem leave the club, we are proud of Jahiem and this move shows that we are a club that tries to develop players in our academy.

We would like to wish Jahiem all the best for his promising career!