Historic promotion: Luton midfielder first to move up from League Five to the Premier League

He had to earn his status as a professional footballer at Luton, and will play Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu with the same Premier League team in the autumn. The story of the African midfielder entertains the British Isles, as he is the first to have four promotions in England.

Both of their matches this year ended in draws and even in their third and undoubtedly most important mutual match of the season, the score was tied after regulation time. Luton’s triumph over Coventry was decided by penalty kicks.

The first eleven scorers made no mistake at a sold-out Wembley, but then Coventry defender Fankaty Dabo took the ball and sent it wide of the three posts. So Luton’s celebrations erupted, the biggest celebration may have been the huge heartthrob from the centre of midfield.

Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu became the first player to progress from the non-professional English competition with one team to the Premier League. With Luton he progressed through League Two, League One and the Championship.

In England, the top four English leagues are considered professional. Mpanzu was there when Luton won the Conference Premier (now the National League) and were promoted to League Two in the 2013/14 season.

Four seasons after that Luton were promoted to League One, in which they warmed up for only a year and headed to the Championship. It has been in the second highest competition for four years, and failed to make the play-offs last year, but this year it has already secured promotion.

Mpanzu had a significant part in this year’s glorious season. Although he played only 52% of the games in the starting eleven in the regular season, he did not miss a single game in the playoffs and played both semi-finals in full.

In total, the twenty-nine-year-old defensive midfielder has already played 376 games in a Luton jersey with a record of 23 goals and 34 assists. He was part of West Ham’s academy as a youngster, but has made just one start for the A-team.

Now, the new signing will have to deal with the renovation of the stadium, as the current one can’t even hold 11,000 fans. That’s a signal of how big an achievement this is.

Source: Premier League