Grimsby Town Football Club is delighted to announce the signing of striker Aribim Pepple from Luton Town on loan until the end of the season.

The 19-year-old signed for the Hatters from Canadian Premier League side Cavalry FC in early August 2022, a country in which he has spent the majority of his life after moving from Kettering at a young age.

After signing his first professional contract for Cavalry in August 2019, ‘Bim’ made the move to Spain to sign for the Youth system at La Liga side, Getafe before making the move back to Canada in April 2022. In the summer of 2022, the striker made Canadian Premier League history, scoring in five consecutive matches for the first time, netting six times in five games. Following increased interest, Luton Town declared their intentions in signing the youngster and secured his services shortly after.

Bim spoke to gtfc.co.uk this afternoon following training and spoke of his determination to make an impact in the English game.

“I’m delighted to get it over the line! I want to come and get regular minutes now, get adapted to English football so yeah, I am excited. A couple of teams had been scouting me for a while, and they [Luton Town] were one of them. When I started scoring lots of goals then a couple of teams started reaching out but they acted fast and were interested, presented a long-term plan in terms of my development and I was immediately interested and I asked my agent to get it done. My journey hasn’t been an easy one, it has been a long one so to get that interest was a proud moment for myself and my family.

“I think the biggest thing for me is goals, that is what I am looking to do, but apart from that I am strong, I am fast, I like to get in behind so that is my first option, but I can also help hold up the ball, so that is a bit about me! I have found it great here, the biggest thing for me was looking for somewhere where I can go and have a manager who can help me develop. In the short time that I have been here, what the manager has shown me, where he thinks I can improve, kind of lines up with what I think, so I know I need to get my head down, listen to them and I can really improve throughout the season”.

We also caught up with manager Paul Hurst who believes that the striker brings something new to his squad.

“Part of it is a little bit unknown! At the same time, we have done as much research into the lad himself as we always would. Luton have obviously felt that it was worth taking a bit of a gamble, but with the attributes that he has and that he has shown in Men’s football, you can see that he is not a young 19-year-old in terms of physically. He is well developed, he will, of course, get stronger but he has got the attributes that we’ve looked for and he gives us something different in that forward area than we currently have.

“I felt that it was worth taking that risk as such, but also we are getting a player that is keen to impress, he is very humble but he is also very hungry to do well and hopefully he can show that and show his abilities in the Grimsby Town shirt”.

Bim will wear the number 23 shirt for the Mariners and is in contention to make his debut for tomorrow’s visit of Crewe Alexandra in the First Round of the Carabao Cup. You can see if he makes his Town debut by purchasing tickets at gtfctickets.co.uk.

You can watch Bim’s first interview with GTFC in full over on marinerstv.co.uk.

Welcome to Blundell Park, Bim!