THESE are heady days for Jeremie Frimpong. Just turned 19, this energetic little bundle of energy was discussing a consignment of early Christmas presents which had arrived addressed him to him at the training ground this week, featuring what has become known as his catchphrase. And they say entrepreneurship is dead in this country.
“I just got sent a cup, a phone case and a t-shirt saying ‘Oh, my days!’” said Frimpong. “That’s just how I speak. Everyone who knows me is aware of that but it just became a big thing. Someone DM’d me [on social media] asking where he should send it and I told him to send it to the training ground.”
This particular businessman isn’t the only man busily making new plans based on the remarkable start to life this young Dutchman has made at Celtic. Plucked from Manchester City for an initial £350,000 without a single first team appearance to his name, Frimpong has chipped in with goals, assists and man of the match awards from his right-back berth, even playing a huge role in claiming the first trophy of the season.
Let’s just say that after what now appears like the oversight of leaving him out of the European squad for the first half of the campaign, Neil Lennon will definitely add him to the list for the second part of the Europa League campaign and February’s last 32 tie against FC Copenhagen. It could mean a senior professional missing out but so be it.
“We didn’t realise how rapid his progression would be and we didn’t have a lot of time to analyse how good he was going to be before naming the squad,” said Lennon on Friday. “But we’ll definitely include him in it for the second half. I like to think we have enough wriggle room but the bottom line is he’s going in and if it means one has to drop out then we’ll have to look at that.”
An every week starter these days, particularly with Hatem Elhamed still out injured, the L plates are off Frimpong on the park – and on the roads. He recently passed his driving test after a couple of fails, to much mirth from his team-mates, but is enjoying the drive up to Lennoxtown from his home in central Glasgow.
“I’ve been driving for a while now,” said Frimpong. “It’s cool. But basically they put on the group chat that they were going to put it up if I passed or failed. So when I passed I was like ‘Yes!’. So I’m driving up to training. Life is easier now.”
With matches every couple of days, and training the rest, Christmas can be a difficult time for a football player – particularly a young man like Frimpong on his own in a new city for the first time. One of seven children who moved from Amsterdam to Manchester back in 2008, he is glad that the family will be coming up the road to celebrate the festive season.
“I’ve got lots of brothers and they are down in Manchester,” he said. “My mum, my brother, my agent, every time I have matches they will come through. And they are coming up for Christmas. So I won’t be by myself.
“They have always believed in me,” he added. “They always told me just to go and do it, told me they knew I could do it.”
Not that Frimpong is likely to be alone for long. A young man with infectious enthusiasm and positivity, he has already fully become part of the group at Celtic, where he indulges in synchronised goal celebrations with team-mates like Ryan Christie. Off the field, when he walks about town, he finds himself chatting away to supporters.
“The captain likes me so that’s good,” he said. “But the whole team have been good.
“Ryan came up to me the other night and said ‘come on, let’s do the Raheem Sterling’,” he added. “I knew what it was but I wasn’t so sure…so we did it very quick. Hey, we’ve got new ones coming up. So there will be more fun. 100 per cent.”
“I think with my personality, everywhere I go in will be good. I’m just good with people in general. I just like to talk to people and like their banter.
“The fans are amazing. Sometimes when I’m out in town they’ll be like ‘oh, that’s Jeremie Frimpong’. So I’ll stop and have a chat with them. They will ask me how I’m finding it and it’s been good.
“When I was walking around Manchester I could just walk, minding my own business. Now it’s like ‘Jeremie! Jeremie!’ It’s different, man, it’s cool.”
So sunny is this young Dutchman’s outlook as he aspires to emulate his hero Memphis Depay – even though he was at United, not City – that it seemed worthwhile asking him if there were any points where things haven’t gone his way. There were, he recalled, hard moments where he missed the cut for glamour foreign youth tournaments. City must have had some squad if they could leave this guy behind.
“When I was younger, there were times when the team was going to Germany or Holland and I wouldn’t get picked for it,” he said. “Or I was playing under-16s at City and there was one time they made me play with the under-15s. So things like that were hard.
“There was one time I didn’t get picked for this tournament in England and I was crying. But I never doubted I would make it. I’ve been doing this my whole life so I always believed. Education was not for me so it had to be football!”
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