Great to be playing so many matches at my age: Valencia prodigy Yunus Musah
Musah, an 18-year-old midfielder, has recently signed a contract extension till the 2025-26 season with Spanish club Valencia CF amid reports that clubs like Arsenal, Everton and Leeds are keeping a close eye on his progress.
“I’m very happy to renew my contract with Valencia. It’s a dream come true for me and (my) family. I have dreamed from young (age) of having my first contract with a big club and today Valencia is a bigger club,” Musah said in quotes shared by La Liga with ET Sport.
“To make this possible, my parents have worked really hard. This is a great moment and a great achievement for me.”
Musah, a product of Arsenal’s youth academy, opted to join Valencia B in 2019 on a free transfer. His talent was quickly noticed and he was fast-tracked to the first team where he made his debut at the age of 17 years and 289 days, becoming the club’s youngest foreign player. He also became the youngest goalscorer in the club’s history when he scored against Getafe at the age of just 17 years and 338 days, breaking the previous record held by South Korea’s Lee Kang-in.
The teenager is now a regular starter for Valencia having started in 11 out of their 13 matches this La Liga season, while coming in as a substitute in one.
“Well, it’s a great thing obviously to be playing so many matches at my age and I just want to say thank you to everyone,” Musah said. “Valencia have shown trust in (me) and I think I want to carry on being at this club which has helped me start my career.”
While Arsenal might be ruing the fact that they let him slip through their fingers, he is currently at the centre of a tug-of-war between England and the USA to avail his services.
Born in New York, USA, Musah moved to England aged 10. He represented England from U15 to U19 levels but made his senior debut with USA in a friendly last month. Now, England are trying to woo him back to their fold.
That tells a lot about his quality. Musah’s senior Valencia teammate and Brazilian defender Gabriel Paulista also vouches for that.
“Yunus is very shy. When I have to push him, I push him. And when I have to make jokes, I do that. When I push Yunus, it’s because he has a lot of quality, and he can take it. I’m always on him: “you can.” And I see that, on the pitch, he isn’t as shy as Ferran [Torres] was, for example,” Paulista said.
“Sometimes I tell him that he doesn’t look like he’s 18 but a lot more experienced. He has a lot of room for growth and he’ll grow day by day. He’s helping us a lot and I want him to keep doing so. He has the potential to go really far.
“He is a very strong player physically. Technically, he is very good on the ball. He knows how to defend, he knows how to attack, look at the goal he scored against Getafe, taking the ball from defence up to the opposition box… He has potential, strength.”
Paulista wants Musah to relax a bit and enjoy his football and life in general.
“He knows he has a lot of quality, he has to loosen up more, put less pressure on himself and enjoy things. Sometimes you have to play as if it were a final, enjoy yourself and try to improve. He tries to do this every day. He loosens up more and surely he will be a great footballer.”
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