Jeremie Frimpong

Is he? Hope so.. not heard anything..

 

Frimpong is a cert for domestic games at the moment.

Playing with such a confidence and doesnt seem to give a toss who he is against.

His place to lose at the moment

 

Yes id be happy with Frimpong starting against them also. We've got some amount of pace and trickery down the right hand side with Forrest and Frimpong. Incredible to think almost 10 years ago Neil Lennon gave Forrest his debut now in 2019 he's unearthed anther gem and given Frimpong his debut.

 

Weve went from one utter gem of a find that looks like a james bond villain that can defend to an utter crazy attacking unstoppable RB. I like l.

 

No one will be able to keep up with his directness and pace.

The black Johnny Hayes.

 

What an upgrade on the slow and past it lustig. Luckily we have him on a 4 year contract.

 

Not at his dynamic best today but, in fairness, has set the bar high recently.

 

Tight * pitch. They doubled up on him..

Wasnt great and that freekick he gave away that resulted in a goal...defintely got to him. When we were clear ahead he relaxed..

Wee man will have better days learning up in freezing diddy places like that..

Bigger pitch deffo suits him but..

 

Imagine going from Ralston to this boy and Elhamed.

One of the big positives in Rodgers * off when he did. It gave NL time to assess the squad and he knew what positions we were weak in.

 

To be fair on their goal it was clearly a foul. A blatant push on Rogic to allow their guy to get on the end of it.

 

He certainly has done a good job in that regard. I imagine we will sell Ralston at this point first offer we get that is anyway decent. We have young Lee O'Connor in there as cover for El Hemed and Frimpong so best for Ralston to move on I think.

 

The way Lenny was talking the other night leads me to believe the wee mans getting a start on Sunday.

Big occasion/crowd and with the wide Hampden pitch, I think he will thrive and terrorize the *, might even get a goal.

Paddy Power offering 20/1 on Frimpong to score anytime and a Celtic win, Ill be sticking a tenner on that if he starts.

 

Got to be end of the road for Ralston. I have no fears about starting Jerry on Sunday, he will have a field day

 

Not to mention, the throw in the guy was on the pitch.

 

Just the right size to fit the young kid too...

 

The week before a General Election, Jeremie Frimpong is perched on a wooden bench lining the walls of dressing room two in Celtic's Lennoxtown training centre.

He has no soap box, no loud hailer and the only people listening are Sportsmail, a club employee, his agent and his older brother Geoffrey.

In measured tones, the teenager is quietly setting out his manifesto for greatness. A long-term plan to become the finest footballer on the planet.

I want to be the best player there is,' he says as if discussing the weather. 'I want to play for the biggest team ever.

'I want to win the Champions League. I want to hold the World Cup.

'I want to win as many trophies as I can.'

On the internet and the pages of the newspapers, images of Lionel Messi, Ballon D'Or winner for a record sixth time, are everywhere. Yet Celtic's new sensation is more interested in the runner-up pictured sitting by the great man's side.

'Look at Virgil Van Dijk,' he adds, 'there's the example. Played for Celtic; four years later he nearly wins the Ballon D'Or at Liverpool. He was so close.

'So can I be the best player there is? Yeah, I think I can be. Celtic can help me with that. The history here is crazy. They are so good - one of the biggest teams there is.

'So I hope I can be the best here. But that only comes with hard work and commitment and that's what I'm going to produce to make it happen.'

Hard work and commitment are only a small part of his story. In itself, the sacrifice of his mother merits a small trophy.

Worried that her brood of seven children might be dragged into the gangland violence of their father's native Amsterdam, Benice Frimpong began a new life in Manchester in 2008.

The Clayton area was the first home of Manchester United, but felt less suitable for a young family.

Working as a cleaner, money was tight. Yet the promise her seven-year-old son was showing with AFC Clayton and Clayton Villa boys' clubs made the purchase of every new pair of football boots an investment in the future.

Frimpong's older brother tells Sportsmail of * coaches handing the young protégé £10 and £20 notes to keep him fed and watered and scoring goals. The real turning point came when AFC Clayton reached an * cup final.

'I scored a hat-trick and I remember playing really well,' recalls the new Bhoy. 'I won best player of the tournament and they gave me a trophy.


'I played so well I suddenly had Liverpool, Man City, Bolton and Blackburn after me. They were all speaking to my parents and it was a big thing for a young kid.

'I went for a Bolton trial first. Then I went to Liverpool and I was going to sign for them. But the travelling was hard and expensive from our home in Manchester. We didn't really have the funds and Man City were more local. I went there on a six-week trial and that was it.'

Joining Manchester City's academy at the age of nine meant going from school to training and returning home at 9pm.

Housing conditions in Bank Street were so poor the family moved to Openshaw, Frimpong's siblings missing out on some of the basics to further their brother's potential career.

In return, he had to make one or two of his own. At St Matthew's High School in Moston, he showed early promise as a sprinter at 100 metres and 110m hurdles.

He said: 'I have always been naturally quick. Was athletics a serious possibility for me? Yeah, 100 per cent.'

Things then changed when Manchester City moved him to St Bede's College, a partner school for the club's academy programme. From then on, the instruction was to focus on football and nothing else.

'I was committed to athletics, but I never thought about it the way I thought about football,' he says. 'It was never in my head to become an Olympic athlete or anything. Football was in my head night and day.'

At 5ft 4in, his lack of height has always caused his coaches a few frown lines.


Starting life as a winger, Manchester City kept him in the shadows, humming and hawing over his build. Change came when he scored twice against Middlesbrough's academy team and earned a promotion to the top team for his age group.

Shortly after that, the regular right-back was injured and Frimpong filled in as a substitute. After the game, academy coach Alan Wright spoke the four words which changed the course of his life.

'Alan said to me: "This is your position." He said: "You could be one of the best right-backs in the world if you master it."

'At first I wasn't sure. I didn't say yes straight away. I thought about it and thought: 'Let's give it a try.'


Where others fretted over his stature, Frimpong never did. He used his athletic prowess to hurdle every obstacle. He said: 'I never worried about height. I just went and played. I know I'm not the tallest. But on the pitch I'll never be the weakest either.

'I will go into any battle. If I get beat I get beat, but I will never shirk from trying.'

To prove it to Manchester City, he knuckled down. The ferocious survival instincts of his mother were in the genes.

'My mates were going out and I was like: "Sorry, I have to sleep because I have football in the morning.' My sister got engaged to be married and I had to miss the engagement party with the family because I had a game the next day.

'I felt sad about that one but, if you want to be a footballer, it's a sacrifice you have to be prepared to make. The higher the level you go to, the less you see of your family.'

That only really became a problem when Glasgow came calling. Neil Lennon spotted him playing for Manchester City's Under-23 team in a friendly win over Celtic's development side at Lennoxtown last season. A £350,000 deal - rising to £1million with add-ons - began to take shape.

'I had a good season with the Under-23s, but I didn't want to do that again because I'd already done it,' he says.

'I wanted first-team football and if that wasn't coming at City then it had to be somewhere else. It wasn't easy for me leaving, I'd been there all my life. But I had to try it. If you are passionate and serious about football, you can't be staying the same.

'You can't be standing still. You have to go higher and higher and higher and strive for the top. And when you get there? You still can't stop.'

Some of the sacrifices were a little harder than others. Where Manchester was wet, Glasgow felt wet and cold. Where the family home was loud and noisy, his new apartment was quiet in the mornings.

To help shatter the silence, his agent moved up for two weeks while his brothers and sisters are regular visitors.

When he turns 19 on Tuesday, his Ghanaian mother will spend the big day - and most of December - catering to his dietary needs.

'Oh, I miss my mum's African food,' he grins. 'Her speciality is this African dish called Jollof rice. Or else there is Fried Yam, that's really nice.

'I don't have to say anything, she just knows. I can make pasta and stuff. But mum makes the sauce and leaves me weeks' worth to get me through. A bit of chicken and I'm a happy man....'

The acclimatisation process has been helped by a quick elevation to Celtic's first team. In the minds of supporters, his explosive pace and invention at right-back has already rendered Kieran Tierney yesterday's man.

Yet tomorrow £7million Rangers winger Ryan Kent is expected to provide the biggest first-team test yet of his defensive abilities. 'I never played against Ryan Kent in England,' he admits. 'But I was with Brandon Barker at Manchester City. It doesn't worry me. I've always been confident about big games. I think I still have work to do on everything, but mainly defending.

'I'm quite confident in one-v-ones, but you can always improve.' His brother speaks of an Under-23 game when he shackled Chelsea's England international star Callum Hudson-Odoi. Like most things, Frimpong took it in his stride. 'Don't get scared,' he explains, 'it's just another game. Go and play. I guess that's my approach to life really.'

There was just the briefest slither of apprehension last week and it was unrelated to football. Not for the first time, he sat his driving test.

'It was my fourth time of trying,' he laughs. 'I drove really good and the tester was really happy with me. I got three minors. If you get a serious you fail, but you're allowed three minors - and I passed.' Three months into life as a rising Celtic star, Frimpong has already thrown away the L plates. Tomorrow at Hampden a new test awaits.

 

Great story.

 

“tomorrow £7million Rangers winger Ryan Kent is expected to provide the biggest first-team test yet of his defensive abilities. ”

Ryan fknn Kent...

If he plays..... Wee Frimpers will make him look like the inbred Liverpool Mongo reject he is.