West Brom have signed a player whose life changed almost overnight | OneFootball

Albion’s latest signing Kareem Tunde has had quite the rise in professional football.

Despite suffering a setback last week, there’s plenty of room for optimism for West Brom this campaign.

The Baggies tasted defeat for the first time under James Morrison for the 2026-27 term, going down 3-1 to promotion contenders Middlesbrough, and there will certainly be frustration after a dominant opening 45 minutes.

Boro went on to turn up the heat in the second half and punish the visitors for failing to nudge in front, with Will Lankshear opening the scoring and then notching a second to cancel out Jimmy-Jay Morgan’s headed equaliser.

Finally, Alfie Jones sealed the points towards the end of the match, meaning Albion came away from the Riverside Stadium empty-handed.

But before attention turns to Wednesday’s home match with league leaders Charlton Athletic, there will be a firm focus on bolstering the squad even further before the end of the transfer window so that Morrison has all the tools at his disposal to succeed.

So far, the Black Country outfit have been excitingly active in the summer transfer window, with the latest arrival of a Spanish winger a potential gem given such a rapid rise in the early stages of his career.

West Brom’s summer business so far

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Prior to the mid-way point of last week, West Brom had brought seven new players into the building, with 20-year-old French midfielder Rabby Nzingoula the latest arrival from Ligue 1 outfit Strasbourg, a player who was exclusively revealed to be of interest to the Baggies here at FLW.

Other signings included defenders Nolan Galves, Carter Pinnington and Conor Townsend, midfielder Felix Horn Myhre, and forwards Barney Stewart and Jimmy-Jay Morgan, with all more than playing their parts in the opening stages of the campaign.

But an area Albion have now strengthened that has been so weak in the past is out wide, with 21-year-old Spanish winger Kareem Tunde becoming the Baggies’ eighth arrival of the window, linking up permanently from La Liga outfit Levante for a reported fee of £4.3m.

The pacey wideman has penned a four-year contract at The Hawthorns and will be hopeful of hitting the ground running in the Championship after an exceptional rise through the professional ranks back in his homeland.

Kareem Tunde’s rapid rise

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Kareem Tunde’s natural talent means he hasn’t had to steadily rise up the ranks like most professional footballers do at the beginning of their careers.

The Spaniard had many clubs as he forced his way to turning into a professional footballer, most notably spending three years between 2017-2020 with Spanish giants Barcelona, before being handed an opportunity to represent Levante.

Just two years ago, Tunde had been playing for Atlético Levante in the Tercera Federacion, known as Spain’s fifth tier, but just shy of a year on from representing the B side, he was promoted up to the senior first-team group at the club, with Tunde himself describing it as a ‘jump of four categories’.

Essentially, Tunde skipped four levels of Spanish football to go right to the very top, missing out on playing in the Segunda Federaction, Primera Federacion groups one and two and the Segunda División.

Kareem Tunde’s time in La Liga

After such a dramatic rise to the top-flight of the Spanish game, most would think Kareem Tunde would be earning short cameos here and there to help him adjust to the intensity of such a step-up in class, but the truth is, he made himself an instant regular.

In a breakthrough campaign, Tunde would feature 21 times for Levante in La Liga, notching an assist in a 4-2 victory over Real Oviedo.

He wouldn’t go on to net a first goal in the Spanish top-flight, unfortunately, with the area of his game needing to be improved being a consistent return of both goals and assists.

Nevertheless, the promise in his game was enough to see him start 17 of the 21 La Liga games he played in last season, with Tunde having such a talented game to be starting so regularly for a top division outfit.

West Brom have a special talent in Kareem Tunde

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With Kareem Tunde’s career firmly on the rise following his exploits in Spain, it appears West Brom could be getting their hands on a real gem this season.

Tunde has bags of natural pace on the flank that can hurt opposition defences and help the Baggies become even more potent in the final third, while more time playing at the top levels of professional football could well see his end product in the final third drastically improve, helping him to register goals and assists on a regular basis and turn himself into such an important player for a promotion push.

While Baggies boss James Morrison has admitted it may take Tunde some time to adjust to the English game, there’s no doubt he’s already mixing in well with the first-team crop, with fluency in the English language such a superb attribute that can help him settle in quite quickly.

Embarking on a new challenge, the pressure will be on Tunde to justify the hype that’s been generated over where he can get to in his career, but with Morrison’s ability to improve players in such a short space of time, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Tunde break into the starting setup and wreak havoc from the get-go.

Tunde’s attributes really suit the way Morrison wants his side to play, with a front-footed and forward-thinking outfit giving the Spaniard the best possible opportunity to thrive in the blue and white stripes.

The addition of Tunde could well go down as one of the best signings of the summer transfer window in the Championship, with the Spaniard certainly having the background that can see him light up the second tier over the coming months.