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Jeremie Frimpong

Discussion in 'Ex Players' started by MickeyyMack, Sep 2, 2019.

Discuss Jeremie Frimpong in the Ex Players area at TalkCeltic.net.

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Slaw

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I have absolutely no qualms about this kid starting. He's an exceptional talent.

Slaw, Dec 7, 2019

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The greatest honour I can bestow on the kid is my new puppy is having his name along with his Green & white collar. Frimpong, got a great ring to it!

G0G, Dec 7, 2019

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Notorious said: ↑

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.
Click to expand...

Read the first couple paragraphs, is Frimpong Nicola Sturgeon in disguise?

Liam Scales, Dec 7, 2019

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eire4

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Notorious said: ↑

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.
Click to expand...

Love how ambitious he is there. Not in an arrogant way but more so in a driven way. He makes it clear he wants to follow a path like Van Dijk which means he does not see himself here at Celtic long term wise but at the same time like Van Dijk he knows it is about steps and he is driven to make a success of himself. Bodes well that attitude both for himself and for us as a club. If he can as a defender have a similar impact on our team to Van Dijk and then move on for a big fee everyone is a winner.

eire4, Dec 7, 2019

#544
Jo-Jo-Buffon

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eire4 said: ↑

Love how ambitious he is there. Not in an arrogant way but more so in a driven way. He makes it clear he wants to follow a path like Van Dijk which means he does not see himself here at Celtic long term wise but at the same time like Van Dijk he knows it is about steps and he is driven to make a success of himself. Bodes well that attitude both for himself and for us as a club. If he can as a defender have a similar impact on our team to Van Dijk and then move on for a big fee everyone is a winner.
Click to expand...

With man city's % sell on fee , think lawell will make sure we get a really big price if he develops the way he has , but think the bhoy will understand this if/when it's his time , really speaks well every time he talks , liked how he brushed them talking about "£7m" ned kent away an talked about other/better players than him lol

Jo-Jo-Buffon, Dec 7, 2019

#545

eire4 likes this.
Notorious Gold Member Gold Member

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Notorious, Dec 7, 2019

#546

charlietully and Slaw like this.
G_portillo

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Has been a shining light in what has been difficult viewing.

G_portillo, Dec 8, 2019

#547
MickeyyMack CELTIC GLASGOW OK

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This is what we are up against the Lodge at work.

MickeyyMack, Dec 8, 2019

#548
G_portillo

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MickeyyyMack said: ↑

This is what we are up against the Lodge at work.
Click to expand...

was a stone wall penalty. Have to feel for the lad, a completely lose/lose situ for him. He did it for the team and the team now owe him to see it out. Can hold his head high.

G_portillo, Dec 8, 2019

#549

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KRS-1888 Scott La Rock

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Him and Forster best on the park,* bless the wee man he can absolutely hold his head high for his contribution today - win or lose.

Love him

KRS-1888, Dec 8, 2019

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Random Review

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MickeyyyMack said: ↑

This is what we are up against the Lodge at work.
Click to expand...

Nah, Collum's just a Muppet not a Hun. Had we lost, I'd have had no complaints about him. I don't know how Morelos didn't get two yellows, but equally our goal was offside.

Random Review, Dec 8, 2019

#551
Valhalla Thus spoke Batistuta.

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So so so * happy for him.

Genuinely love the wee *.

Valhalla, Dec 8, 2019

#552

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HTG "I have an uncle who does Yoga"

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Was * devastated when he was sent off, if we lost that it would have affected him big time, other than that daft challenge he was fantastic.

HTG, Dec 8, 2019

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Love him, still some naivety there that will go away with more experience but he is some player, actually would like to see him right wing also.

I love when foreign players come here and just get Celtic! He bossed that wee rodent looking * Kent.
kyndig, Dec 8, 2019

#554

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Bob Loblaw Gold Member Gold Member

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MickeyyyMack said: ↑

This is what we are up against the Lodge at work.
Click to expand...

Dunno about that. Had to send him off has he wasn't playing the ball. Was unlucky for the wee man.

Collum is incompetent, not biased.

Bob Loblaw, Dec 8, 2019

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Was great. Unlucky with the break of the ball in the penalty incident.

Showed for the ball again and again in a first half as bad as any I’ve seen us produce, which is a brilliant positive for the boy.

King of Kings, Dec 8, 2019

#556
Paul67 Administrator Administrator

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This boy is going to be a star. Nothing fazes him.

Paul67, Dec 8, 2019

#557

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Notorious Gold Member Gold Member

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Notorious, Dec 8, 2019

#558

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Marty McFly Whoa, this is heavy

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Yes wee man!!!!!

It was a penalty, but he played his heart out, absolute baller and so so so delighted for him

Marty McFly, Dec 8, 2019

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Cena Never Give Up Gold Member

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His interview just now is hilarious

Cena, Dec 8, 2019

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