Watching back the clips from Rush Green as the players return for pre-season training, West Ham United appear to have themselves a powerhouse winger with biceps the size of tree trunks.
And no, before you ask, the club did not do a U-turn on Adama Traore’s contract situation.
Former Fulham and Wolves speedster Traore left the London Stadium when his short-term deal ran out at the beginning of July. Around the same time, the Hammers confirmed that Keiber Lamadrid would be staying on a permanent basis.
Can you spot anything interesting as West Ham return for pre-season?
Taty returns, Nuno chats with Bowen, and a couple of youngsters make an appearance
West Ham United triggered the £1 million clause in the Venezuela international’s Deportivo la Guaira contract. And if his first-team debut against third-tier Burton Albion in the FA Cup was proof that Keiber Lamadrid needed to work on his physicality, well, he certainly seems to have taken that on board.
Keiber Lamadrid looks a man transformed at West Ham United
Broad-shouldered and newly-bearded, a bulked-up Lamadrid is clearly keen to ensure that, if he does fail to make the grade in claret and blue, it won’t be because of a lack of physical strength.
“Lamadrid looks like he’s aged about five years!” one Hammers fan wrote on social media as the players return for the start of their summer training.
“Lamadrid is built like a tank! Can’t see many Championship full-backs knocking this winger off the ball.”
“Lamadrid been on the Traore workout programme?
“Nuno turning him into his own Traore.”
“About to become the best left winger in the league.”
Opportunities will almost certainly present themselves for Lamadrid over the next few weeks. Crysencio Summerville exited the World Cup at the round-of-32 stage and will now have an extended break before returning to Rush Green. In the meantime, Hammers News can confirm that Summerville has his heart set on moving to Manchester United.
So with last season’s first-choice left-winger both absent in the present and destined to depart in the near future, there may be a spot in Nuno’s XI vacant for Lamadrid to claim as his own. A couple of friendly clashes against Southend United and Stevenage should represent a good early test for the 2025 Venezuelan league Young Player of the Year.
Lamadrid is seen as a future first-teamer at the Hammers
According to Alexis Jordan, a youth development head at former employers Deportivo la Guaira, Lamadrid ‘surprised’ the West Ham staff with joining on loan during the January transfer window.
“The West Ham fitness coaches are already in contact with ours. They are pleasantly surprised by his physical balance and his test results,” Jordan said at the time.
“They will [develop] him slowly. With [clubs in] England playing three or four different cups, he will get his chance.”
The 22-year-old might have only played 71 minutes of first-team football – all coming against Burton in that aforementioned FA Cup 4th round clash – but West Ham obviously feel that he has the physical profile to make his mark in English football.
Clearly, Lamadrid has been putting in the hard yards behind the scenes. Soon, it will be time to find out whether all those hours spent in the gym have been worth it.
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“One of the things I value most about Keiber is his willingness to meet the demands, to self-correct, to listen to the coaching staff’s needs and what they ask of him, and then his desire to improve,” Juan Domingo Tolisano, a former coach of his back in Venezuela, told Solovenex.
“I think he still has no ceiling. I believe he hasn’t reached his full potential yet.
“At the beginning of the [2025 Venezuelan] season, he suffered an injury that could have made his return difficult. I was surprised because, during that time, he was away for two months, training separately. But he came back with more muscle mass in his quadriceps. He came back much stronger aerobically.
“In other words, it took him very little time to get back into a rhythm. He trained in a way that actually allowed him to take advantage of the two months he wasn’t training with his teammates to grow. That speaks to his self-discipline.”
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