Frenchman Junior Aho joins Minnesota Vikings squad

The 24-year-old Frenchman will be part of the Vikings squad for the next season.

By Le Figaro with AFP

Posted on 05/04/2023 at 1:36 p.m.

Frenchman Junior Aho will join the Minnesota Vikings who are preparing for the 2023-24 season, the first step in a possible career in the National American Football League, the NFL announced on Thursday.

«We are delighted to see Junior join the Vikings, after years of commitment and development of his talent at all levels of the game, both in France and in the United States.“, said Will Bryce, in charge of the international development program of the NFL, quoted in a press release. “Junior is a gifted athlete with a fantastic character, who worked hard to achieve his dream of joining an NFL team.“, he continued.

He joined the NFL’s international program

Originally from Nice, Aho (24) notably played for the France under-19 team before leaving for the United States, first at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, then at Methodist University. of the South (SMU) of Dallas, which evolves in division 1, the best American university level.

In January 2023, the one who plays in defense, joined, after tests carried out in London in the Tottenham stadium, the international program of the NFL, created in 2017 to identify the best American football players outside North America and to allow them to try their luck in the NFL.

After ten weeks of training at the IMG Academy in Bradenton (Florida) at the start of the year alongside Aho, seven other players saidinternational“, six Nigerians and an Australian, will join teams of the League. These eight players are guaranteed to carry out all the preparation for the 2023-24 season with their respective teams, which bring together 90 players at the start, but nothing guarantees them to be part of the 53 players selected by each team for the season and play in the NFL. this year or even in the future.

They may, however, said the NFL, join the training team (“practice squad“) available to any NFL franchise which can thus draw during the season from this pool of players. Since the beginning of the international program, 37 players called “internationalhave joined NFL teams, thirteen are currently on the expanded NFL team rosters, and only four are on the so-calledactive».

If several French players have been under contract with NFL teams, only one has really broken through in the holy of holies, Richard Tardits, who was a linebacker (“linebackerof the New England Patriots from 1990 to 1992.