Amoo, IbrahimovicGetty

Amoo reveals Ibrahimovic’s advice that he’s following at Copenhagen

Copenhagen’s Akinkunmi Amoo has revealed the advice AC Milan’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave him after his move to Hammarby IF.

Following his impressive performance for the Nigeria U17 team at the 2019 U17 World Cup in Brazil, the winger was signed on a four-year contract by the Swedish club co-owned by the veteran striker.

During his time with Bajen, the 20-year-old featured in 35 league matches with nine goals to his credit, while he was instrumental in their Swedish Cup triumph in the 2020-21 campaign.

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Amoo has since revealed he was counselled by the former Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United goal machine, claiming he is still following that instruction that will help him improve professionally.

“Meeting Ibrahimovic remains one of the biggest things to have happened to me,” the Nigeria international told GOAL.

“It was a big surprise to me because he was one of my best players then on Play Station and Fifa Video Games.

“After playing on a Saturday, he paid a surprise visit to our training ground on Sunday morning to my astonishment.

“We had a lengthy conversation and his advice really helped me a lot during my time at Hammarby and they are still useful in Copenhagen.

“He told me ‘Amoo, I know you are small in size but what you have in you is so big. The fans love you and the technical crew is there for you also. Don’t be distracted, focus on your football and you will excel.’

“Another priceless thing he told me then was: ‘Don’t be intimidated and remember that only you can give yourself confidence. Make sure you believe in yourself all the time’”.

Akinkunmi AmooGetty

After a one-and-a-half-year spell in Sweden, Amoo moved to the Danish capital in a record-breaking transfer that will keep him at Parken Stadium until 2026.

Manager Jess Thorup described the pint-size forward as an asset to his team because of his creativity and other qualities.

"Both in the short and long term, I am sure he will be a great asset to us," Thorup told the media.

"He is an absolutely incredible athlete and can really put people off with his dribbles. He brings that degree of X-factor and a new threat into our offensive play, where we are going to have a lot of options to utilise.

"We are happy that we now have a good training camp coming up to get to know each other better and field some new boys in the team, so that we will be sharp when it kicks off on 20 February against OB."

 

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