Manchester City Fan View: EXCLUSIVE interview with academy defender Yeboah Amankwah

Yahoo Sport Manchester City fan blogger Jordan-Luke McDonald spoke to academy scholar and central defender Yeboah Amankwah on Saturday in the wake of his under-18 side’s 4-1 comeback victory over Wolves at home.

In the quality yet humble reception of a hotel on the outskirts of Piccadilly, which rather aptly emulated the personality of my interviewee, Yeboah Amankwah appeared from around the corner of the check-in desk, arm extended for a handshake. The youngster, aged just 16, towered over me. I knew one reason why he was a centre back.

Yeboah proceeded to introduce me to his agent and his mother, who had travelled from his hometown of London to watch his academy team claim their second win from two games via an impressive comeback performance.

Jordan-Luke: First of all, congratulations Yeboah on becoming a scholar at Manchester City. I’m sure it has been a bit of a whirlwind experience for you coming up from London and now living in Manchester in a different environment as well.

Yeboah: Thank you. Yeah, it has. Coming from London, it is just a different experience.

J: I’m sure the academy setup at the club and teammates that you have got there have helped you to gel in and bed in there and really get used to Manchester as a city.

Y: Yeah, ever since I came on trial, the coaches, the staff and the players have really taken me in and ever since, I just haven’t looked back.

J: You’re from South London yourself and you emerged from the Kinetic Foundation in the capital. Can you just give us a bit of background on that for people who might not have heard about it? What is that foundation about?

Y: Kinetic is a club that ranges from under-9s to under-18s, with different age groups and coaches. They basically help players that are not signed and push them to try and get them signed to academies.

J: They are a registered charity that helps young people through sport into employment, education and training. Obviously, they have done a very good job because you are now at Manchester City. Credit to them really for the job that they have been doing down there.

Y: Yeah, it is really good training down there.

J: How would you describe yourself as a player? Obviously you are a central defender, but what would you say your main qualities are?

Y: I am someone that has presence because I am tall. I am also confident on the ball and can play with both feet – left foot and right foot. I am good at heading too. I would say that I am an all-round player for centre back.

J: You mention that you are comfortable on the ball – we can see that see quite evidently from your games at the academy – but is that something that the coaching team at the academy is really trying to push, like with the first team?

Y: Yeah, we do lots of ball work, different types – not just passing on the floor, but also long passing, different types of controlling and they are just trying to get everyone in every position – goalkeepers too – comfortable on the ball, so we can handle it in pressured situations.

J: Sometimes it is you – the centre back – taking on the striker, as opposed to the other way around from what I have seen!

Y: Sometimes you have just got to do it!

J: Last year, you were without a professional football club, playing football in a park, and now you are a scholar at City. That must be a surreal experience for you, coming such a long way in such a short space of time.

Y: Yeah. I just worked hard. When I first went there and saw the facilities, I hadn’t seen anything like it. I used to go and train in the park by myself with like two balls, and now I can go down to City and I will have like twenty balls, thirty balls that I can just take out and just train. So I’m just trying to take advantage of it all really.

J: The facilities there are actually stunning, aren’t they, and you can see the first team changing room and what they have done there this season. But even at the academy level, it was £200 million spent on the facilities, so it is a massive investment in the youth and you are really benefitting from that, I imagine.

Y: Yeah, we are all benefitting from it to be honest because other people do not get that. We are young and we have been given the opportunity. Everyone in the academy has just got to realise what they have. Last year, I didn’t have it, so now every day I am trying to go out on the pitches to train.

J: You said there about taking balls out and doing stuff on the training pitches. Is that something that you do beyond the training sessions on a personal level, going out to do your own work?

Y: Yeah, I like to do extras, to make sure that it is not just coaching. The coaching at City is top, but it can’t just be the coaches driving. You have got to work yourself – you have got to drive yourself every day to improve.

J: On a personal level then, what would you say are the areas where you are looking to improve?

Y: For me, I need to improve my agility, getting around, and sometimes playing things a bit simpler on the ball. I would also say heading. I am tall and I am good at heading, but I would say that I can definitely improve because when you get older and you start to play more competitively and more first team football, where balls are going high, you have got to try and win the headers against the opposition strikers.

J: You are quite versatile though. I was speaking to Joe Shields, City’s Head of Recruitment for the academy in the UK, and he said that he saw you play at left midfield before you were signed. You are also capable of playing at right back as well. Is centre back the position that you really want to hone in on? Is that where you see yourself playing in the future?

Y: When I was younger, I played in different positions, like in attack. I see myself as a centre back in the future.

J: You definitely have the qualities for it! You were actually on trial at Manchester United from last October and you were also at Tottenham. But you decided to join City, which puts you in the good books of City fans over United. What was it that really compelled you to make that move?

Y: It was a decision I made because I think that the coaching at City is top. It is good at United as well, but I think that the areas where I really need to improve on, because I am quite big, are technically. The drills that City do and how the coaches place an emphasis on ball playing, that is something that I look up to. Ball playing centre backs, that is what I want to be.

J: That is evident in the first team, with people like John Stones who have really been brought in for that area of his game. Have you had much input from the first team? Are there any players that have spoken to you personally?

Y: Not really in the first team. But yesterday, Vincent Kompany was at our training session, which was good. It was good to see him. I didn’t speak to him much, but he was coaching us. It is good. Now we see players like Phil Foden, Brahim Diaz and Tosin Adarabioyo, they are all in the first team and they are all like sixteen, seventeen, nineteen. Everyone at the academy is just really happy – it is driving all of us because we all want to get to the first team to be honest.

J: Being in the under-18s, you will have seen players come through, like Foden as you say, for example, who have broken into the first team. Is that your main aim now, to get your head down like you say and really push for that first team?

Y: Yeah, I just want to push, keep pushing. No one knows what is going to happen. You never know what is going to happen. All you have got to do is keep your head down and keep working hard.

J: Have you had any words with Pep Guardiola?

Y: No, not yet. Hopefully soon.

J: I noticed on your social media that you did meet with Rio Ferdinand back in June though. Did he have any words of advice for you, especially with him being a centre back like yourself?

Y: Rio just said to me that I should just keep working hard. He said to stay humble. He was telling me that it is not going to be easy and that between under-18s and the first team, you are not going to have it all your own way. There are going to be times when you are not going to play. But when you are out there on the pitch, you have just got to produce your best. That’s what he was telling me.

J: Do you have any idols from when you were growing up and looking up to players, whether they were at City or not? Are there any players you looked up to?

Y: When I looked up to players, I didn’t really look up to anyone specifically. But I looked up to players like Cristiano Ronaldo, his hard work. I like players like that, who work hard. I just look up really to all footballers that are at a top level, to be honest, because they have all made it and that is what I want to do.

J: With Ronaldo as well, when he broke through at United, he just kept working and working and working, and he is that level now where he is almost untouchable. He is on a level with some of the best players ever. So like you say, like yourself, working hard and doing those things outside of the training sessions which really get you up to that level.

Y: That is what I am aiming for. I am just trying to be the best that I can be. I’m not trying to compare myself to others, just focus on me right now.

J: Focussing on yourself, City are a world class team and they have got world class players everywhere. It is going to be hard for anyone, whether they are from Barcelona or Real Madrid, or a City youth team player, to get into that first team as it is such a competitive team. At most clubs in the Premier League, it is going to be very hard to break into the first team. What are your personal ambitions at City? Is it to get into the City first team?

Y: That should be everyone’s aim because we are all there to work hard and try to get into the first team, so by God’s grace and nothing happens to me and I stay fit, injury free, then I can break through if I keep working hard.

J: A question that the fans have suggested that I ask you, from their perspective as fans, obviously the youth teams have been set up in a way that emulates the first team. The play style, formations and tactics you could argue were being implemented in the academy before they were implemented in the first team, so do you feel that there is really a clear pathway to the first team because of that?

Y: I think there is a pathway, because when you go to the first team, the tactics will be not the same, but very similar, very alike. So when you go there, it won’t take as long for you to adapt because they are playing similar football. The players there are not on the same level quality as the players in your team – they are obviously better – but they are going to help you to develop.

J: Well you got the league season off to a good start. You won 2-1 away at Newcastle last week and today you came back from being 1-0 down to winning 4-1 at home against Wolves, so a great start for the under-18s.

Y: Yeah, it has been good. We worked hard in pre-season and everyone is happy at the academy – happy with our performances – and hopefully we can just take each game as it comes and we can get the wins.

J: There seems to be some great chemistry there at the academy, like you mentioned in the tweet that you posted today. Hard work and teamwork as well to come back from that 1-0 deficit and win the game.

Y: I think that it was good – we went 1-0 down and our team just kept pushing, pushing. Even players that weren’t starting. We kept supporting each other, which I think is good. Any squad needs to be strong and together, which I think we are.

J: As a squad, what are your ambitions for the season? You are top of the league at the moment after two games. Is that your ambition, to win the title?

Y: It has got to be, to win the title. But we want to do it in the right way. You know City, we want to have the right football. We want to show our qualities, which I think is important. Hopefully we can win the title and do it in the City way – the City style.

J: Just on a general point about football, you have seen the likes of Neymar move for millions and millions, you have seen massive amounts of money spent this summer. Maybe it will get to a point where there cannot be any more money in the game. But at the level it is currently at, as a youth player, what are your thoughts on that in terms of the fact that maybe some clubs are not going to be looking to the youth as much as spending money on a ready-made player?

Y: I think with the amount of money being spent, you have got to see it as a chance to bring your game up, bring your level up. If they are buying a player from abroad, you have got to make sure that you are better than him and you are working harder, working two times harder. The pitch does not lie – what you see on the pitch is how good someone actually is. It does not matter about the price. It matters about who is producing. I would just say to every youth player to just keep working and you will get the results.

J: On a final note, as an individual away from football, what are your interests?

Y: I like to play FIFA.

J: Every footballer says that!

Y: I stay in contact with my friends from London. Sometimes I go out with some of the players from our team.

J: Do you do much outside of football with your teammates?

Y: Sometimes, yeah. We go out for food. Nothing too much.

J: I imagine that keeps the chemistry up between the players.

Y: Yeah, it keeps us together.

J: Thank you very much for the interview and good luck for the rest of the season.

Y: Thank you.

After the interview had concluded, I naturally thanked all three for their time, yet it felt as if the young defender and his party were more gracious of me for mine, praising me on the quality of the questions that I had asked, and proceeded in turn to ask me a series of questions about myself. With the masses of stories in the media about young footballers with attitude issues and so on, the entire experience felt particularly humbling. Thank you once again for your time Yeboah and best of luck for the rest of the season and for the future.