Reading Football Club are pleased to announce that 22-year-old left-back Nesta Guinness-Walker has put pen to paper on a one-year deal on the eve of the new Championship season.
The former AFC Wimbledon player has been training with Paul Ince’s first team in recent weeks and has sufficiently impressed to earn a contract at the club which will run until the summer of 2023.
Head of Football Operations, Mark Bowen, said: “Nesta is a player who I had the opportunity to see play first hand during the last couple of months of last season at AFC Wimbledon and it was clear he is a young player with the right attitude, raw talent and potential. He has shown what we can expect from him during pre-season at Bearwood Park and I am sure he will be a good addition to the squad we are gradually piecing together.”
Guinness-Walker spent his fledgling years at Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur but began his senior career in non-League football with the Met Police.
He made the significant step up to League One when he joined AFC Wimbledon in May 2019 and he went on to make 97 appearances for the Dons during three years in south-west London.
The first of three goals scored for the club came as the opener in a third-tier meeting with Ipswich Town at Portman Road in August 2019 and last season he scored in front of the home fans for the first time in a 2-2 draw with Sheffield Wednesday.
In total, Guinness-Walker made 35 appearances for Wimbledon last season – and he featured for the Royals as a second half substitute in a friendly at Plough Lane earlier this month.
He also played a part in friendlies against West Ham and Brighton in the blue and white hoops of Reading this summer and now he is on our books for 2022-23 and eligible to feature in our opening game of the season at Blackpool this weekend.
Manager Paul Ince said, “Nesta has done well during the last few weeks he has been training with us and we have identified in him the hunger to succeed, the ability to perform at this level and a desire to improve and achieve his potential. It’s clear our squad needs strength in depth to compete with the rigours of the Championship, so he will be a welcome addition to the first team group going into a very busy first few months of the campaign.”
