The 19-year-old’s reputation in the game has grown recently due to his goals and performance levels, making him one of the most promising prospects in Australian football.
The Brisbane Roar striker, an Australian youth international, has been linked to several Championship clubs this month regarding a possible move to English football.
On January 9, Football Insider revealed that Queens Park Rangers and Sheffield Wednesday had both made proposals for the teenager. Middlesbrough was also touted as a possible suitor for the highly regarded center forward.
According to a recent update from The Star, Sheffield Wednesday may not be as far down the road as previously reported by Football Insider, who claimed that the Owls had made an approach for Waddingham.
As of Thursday night, January 9, they state that they understand no official bid has been made by Wednesday for the Brisbane Roar striker.
The Owls’ current level of interest in Waddingham is also unknown, according to The Star.
Rohl was asked about the links to the Australian ahead of Wednesday’s FA Cup tie vs Coventry City, to which the German coach gave an interesting response. He said: “There are a lot of rumours and names at the moment! If there are any updates I will give you them, if it is possible, as soon as possible. But I will not make statements on individual players now.
“You see it in the whole market, there is a lot of activation in the market now, a lot of rumours, every club is linked with some players.
“You see there is really a challenge to get some players and you have to go all-in. Let’s see what we can do, we will try and hopefully, we can edit some good players for our squad.”
Sheffield Wednesday’s 38 goals in 26 Championship games this season are higher than those of teams like Blackburn Rovers (28), Burnley (31), West Brom (32) and Sheffield United (36) combined, indicating that they haven’t exactly had trouble scoring.
According to FotMob, Wednesday has the fifth-highest goals per game ratio in the second division (1.5), but they have managed to do it without having a prolific center-forward on the team, which only serves to highlight Rohl’s outstanding play this season.
33-year-old striker Michael Smith has the most goals so far this season out of the Owls’ recognised centre-forwards with five, whilst Jamal Lowe and Charlie McNeill have struggled to make an impact in the debut seasons at Hillsborough so far this term.
Meanwhile, Ike Ugbo sealed a permanent move to the club in the summer, after a fruitful loan spell from French side Troyes in the second half of last season that saw the Canadian international bag seven goals in 18 Championship appearances.
The 26-year-old is yet to find the net in the league so far this season, however, and therefore, with Sheffield Wednesday sitting just three points outside the play-off places, adding a real goalscorer to their strike department could transform the Owls into a top-six side.
