By Safiu Kehinde
Roma head coach, Jose Mourinho has fulfilled his promise of getting Ghanaian youngster, Felx Afena-Gyan, a new boot after his late brace helped the club secured a win against Genoa on Sunday.
Finding it difficult to break through Genoa’s defence, Jose Mourinho decided to bring on the 18-year-old forward in the 74th minute who didn’t hesitate to put Roma into the lead. He further doubled the lead towards the final minutes of the match.
Having broken into Roma’s first team, the win against Genoa made it Afena-Gyan’s third match for Roma- though he had come on as a sub in all his matches. His craftiness, however, caught the fancy of Mourinho, leading to him earning a spot in the first team.
After the match, Mourinho revealed he promised to buy the youngster a new pair of shoes worth £670, provided he scored against Genoa. Afena-Gyan went farther than expected to put Mourinho in awe. The Special One was full of praises, lauding the effort of Afena-Gyan in securing the win for his team.
“Tomorrow morning, the first thing I do is buy him the boots,” He had said after the match.
He added, “I am sorry for Mister De Rossi and the Primavera squad, but Felix will stay with us. The Primavera work close to us, so Felix and another four or five players have come across to the senior squad.”
Mourinho further lauded the cool-headedness of the Ghanaian starlet as well as his strong mentality, despite being young.
“What impressed me the most was his cool head in front of goal. If he is not in terms of technique fantastic, he does have a strong mentality.
“You get these kids now who think they know everything, but he is humble and you can sense he just absorbs all this information from everyone around him. That’s fantastic,” he said.
Meanwhile, an excited Afena-Gyan took to his social media handle to appreciate the gesture of Jose Mourinho.
“I’m extremely delighted. Grateful to Mister #JoseMourinho @ASRomaEN,” he tweeted.
