Exclusive: Millwall winger Romain Esse signs long-term professional contract

Romain Esse has signed a new long-term professional contract at Millwall.

The 17-year-old winger has broken on to the first-team scene this season and made his debut in the 89th minute of the Boxing Day win at Watford.

Esse has featured three more times since – all as a substitute – and is set to add to his game time, especially with Tyler Burey sidelined with a hip issue.

Lions boss told our publication at the end of December that the talented teenager was set to stay with the senior-up set-up for the remainder of the Championship campaign.

“I’m a big believer that even if a player is younger than some of the ones in the U23 but is good enough – you can see that real potential – they have to almost leapfrog the other players in the group,” Rowett told the South London Press at the time.

“The very, very best players make their debuts at 16 or 17, that’s just how it works when you think a player has some special qualities.

“We’ve been really impressed with him. He has been very calm on the ball, he’s got great decision-making in sessions – he sees the right pass and before the ball comes to him.

“It’s always a fine balance. You can easily go with senior players – ones that have seen it and done it – but as a club we always have to try and give that player an opportunity to be part of the group. That might be in and out of the squad or it might be off the bench.

“Ultimately he’ll be with us now, certainly for the rest of the season, every day in training. Hopefully along the way he can add something off the bench. He will develop more over the next four or five months for that exposure.

“He’s going to be a really good player but how that develops and how quickly it develops will be down to him.”

Esse committing his future is a major boost for the Lions, who saw 16-year-old striker Zak Lovelace snub professional terms to instead move to Glasgow Rangers in the summer.