Jovon Makama: a raw diamond? | OneFootball

Jovon Makama will go down as one of Lincoln City academy’s greatest success stories, should the final dotting of i’s and crossing of t’s go smoothly in the coming hours and days, and he becomes a Norwich City player. He’s certainly the most promising talent they’ve produced in my decade or so following the club since going to uni there.

In recent seasons, since the departure of the Cowley brothers, Lincoln City have operated in a remarkably similar way to Norwich City. Developing young talent, both from their own academy and providing a pathway for top prospects from the Premier League and Championship, is crucial to their model and attracting business from higher up the pyramid. Both are seen as desirable places by agents and by top clubs to send their bright young things.

While we at Norwich are naturally higher in the food chain and have the Category 1 academy and top-notch Colney facilities, it would be fair to say Lincoln have had to lean more on the loan market to garner that reputation. With Brennan Johnson and Morgan Rogers in particular, not only were The Imps deploying them in a way that saw them tear s**t up in League One during the Covid season, they were also moulding them to become future Premier League stars – giving them that ‘edge’ and responsibility in a modern system. After that, it was only a matter of time before one or two of their own started to emerge. At roughly the same time, Jovon Makama had just joined The Imps’ youth setup.

Jovon’s rise has been sharp since his senior football introduction – even sharper than that of Irish full back Sean Roughan, who has moved on this summer- but, admittedly, I expected his moment to come next summer. All the attributes of a potential all-round Championship-level – or maybe even better – striker of the future are definitely here, but the sample size is still quite small and, inevitably, he is still somewhat raw.

I say this despite last season definitely being his breakthrough campaign, making 45 appearances in all competitions and finishing as The Imps’ top scorer with 11 goals – with at least one in all four league and cup competitions. He also picked up the club’s Young Player of The Year award and bagged his first career hat trick in a 5-0 demolition of Bristol Rovers.

He also more than doubled his minutes on the 2023/24 season, starting 29 league games (compared to eight the season before) as Michael Skubala struggled to find a consistent source of goals after Joe Taylor returned to Luton after a prolific loan spell in early 2024 and Ben House was sidelined for several months of last season with a hip injury. Loanee Bailey Cadamarteri showed promise but also missed significant time.

While veteran target man James Collins was signed in January this year, Jovon’s game was improving all the time, and his pace and power were proving a handful for opposition defenders. It meant he was always in and around the starting lineup – even if that meant being deployed on the right in a front three, in a similar position to Ante Crnac, and Josh Sargent before him.

I was able to watch one of his starts away at Cambridge in the early months of last season and a couple of bulldozing runs stick to mind. An experienced U’s back line struggled to cope with his directness and physicality. Only a couple of smart saves from our own Vicente Reyes kept him off the scoresheet that day.

On the other hand, I have seen games where Jovon has struggled to combine those traits. Whether it be knocking a defender off balance but then having a loose touch himself and losing possession, or having the acceleration to beat a defender to a searching throughball, but then not using his body well enough to shield it, or not quite making the right decision in and around the box.

Sometimes, in League One, it’s tough to judge how a player might translate to the level(s) above when the game is played at 100mph and teams are much less possession-obsessed than in the Championship and Premier League. Lincoln under Skubala are certainly not one of those teams. In fact, they ranked 20th (of 24) for average possession according to FotMob with just 45.3% last season.

Norwich’s recent DNA is in complete contrast to that, but we are expecting to see a lot more pragmatism and adaptability under Liam Manning. The friendly against NAC Breda showed a willingness to go long when needed, and Manning certainly wants to see more passes going forwards rather than sidewards and backwards.

Naturally, this’ll require some proper athletes to get up and down the pitch and have the stamina and strength to play in games with a higher number of quick transitions. The profile of this summer’s recruits all seem to have that in common – have you seen Mirko Topić’s arms?! I can certainly see where Jovon fits within all of that.

It may be wise to loan him back into League One, and give him another year of battering 30-something year-old defenders, hopefully putting a few more on their arse like he did for the second of his three strikes against Bristol Rovers. Should he, say, notch another 10 or so goals (or maybe more), we’re all aware by now as to how astronomically high the market values of players – even at that level – can soar. Someone is probably going to drop around £10m on Wycombe’s Richard Kone before the end of the month.

Speaking of figures, this will be far Lincoln’s biggest payday for a player in their history. For Norwich, it’s a relatively minimal price to pay now for a player who could repay it tenfold in the future. It works so well for all parties, and it’s another shrewd piece of business from Ben Knapper, who continues to impress in year two of his role.

Oh, and Jovon also has a rocket of a right foot. Search for highlights from The Imps’ 4-2 friendly win over West Brom last weekend, and you’ll see what I mean.