DAPO Afolyan looked back on his first year as an official Wanderer and admitted it was a perfect time to join the club.

Twelve months ago the twinkle-toed winger agreed a permanent move from West Ham, having already helped the Whites to promotion from League Two.

It has proved the perfect move as the 24-year-old rattled in 14 goals last season to earn himself the club’s player of the year award.

Looking back at the decision to leave the Hammers and find regular football last summer, Afolayan said things could hardly have gone better.

“For my age it was the right time to go – I’d felt it for a few years,” he said of the moving away from the London Stadium.

“When I joined West Ham I was 20 and came from Solihull Moors in the National League and my ambition was always to play first team football.

“It didn’t work out for a number of reasons, injuries, manager changes, all sorts, but again I just wanted to play first team and every window I was looking to get out on loan.

“When the opportunity to come to Bolton arrived I’d spoken to the manager about two or three days before the window closed and in my head it was done and dusted. I was buzzing because of everything I knew about the club, I just wanted to get here, play games, especially because when I arrived they were thick and fast.

“We went on an incredible run and then to come and build on it again, especially with the fans because we only saw a little bit of them towards the end of last year when we were almost up and had pockets of them at some games.

“It has been unreal this season, so for me, it was the perfect time to come here.”

Afolayan’s success this season has revived talk of his international allegiances.

Nigeria have already sounded him out – but Bolton’s “star man” accepts he will have to play at a higher level of football if his dream of playing for the Super Eagles is to become a reality.

“I haven’t spoken to them recently but when I was at West Ham we talked for a bit about the younger age groups but it is one of those, there are a lot of top, top players out there,” he said.

“You look at the forwards that Nigeria have and they are all playing Serie A, Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, so hopefully my time will come but until then I just have to keep working hard.”