HAPPY DAYS
Frimpong’s impact at Celtic means he has now got the medal — and the T-shirt !
ACELTIC regular for just a couple of months, teenager Jeremie Frimpong already has his first winner’s medal. As of last week, he’s also got the T-shirt. Inspired by a television interview in which the young right-back reacted to Celtic’s Betfred Cup final victory by repeatedly using the phrase ‘oh my days!’, an imaginative fan contacted him via social media.
The result is a selection of bespoke memorabilia bearing the catchphrase.
‘I just got sent a cup, a phone case and a T-shirt saying: “Oh my days!”’ he said laughing. ‘That’s just how I speak. Everyone who knows me is aware of that but it just became a big thing.’
Frimpong’s Hampden excitement was heightened by the circumstances surrounding Celtic’s 1-0 victory over Rangers.
Under the cosh for most of the final and indebted to goalkeeper Fraser Forster, Celtic took the lead and then clung on after the 19-yearold Dutchman was red-carded for conceding the penalty that was subsequently missed by Alfredo Morelos.
That he was selected to start at all shows just how far he has come in a short space of time.
Signed by Neil Lennon after showing up well for Manchester City in a development game at Celtic’s Lennoxtown training ground, the youngster was viewed as a project player, not the natural successor to Mikael Lustig.
The Swede’s departure led Lennon to recruit Hatem Abd Elhamed and Moritz Bauer to compete for the right-back berth, with Frimpong left out of the club’s Europa League squad.
Although Elhamed and Bauer played their part in helping Lennon’s team win Group E, Frimpong will be on board for the knockout tie against Copenhagen in February.
‘We didn’t realise how rapid Jeremie’s 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,’ admitted Lennon. ‘We’ll definitely include him in it for the second half of the season.
‘I like to think we have enough wriggle room in the squad to get him there. The bottom line is he’s going in and if it means one has to drop out, then we’ll look at that.’
The territorial nature of the football dressing room can lead senior players to clip the wings of a youngster perceived as being too confident for his own good.
However, through sheer charisma,
Frimpong has effortlessly avoided this pitfall.
After he scored his first goal for the club away to Aberdeen, captain Scott Brown made a point of directing the defender to the front of the post-match celebrations.
‘The captain likes me, so that’s good,’ said Frimpong. ‘Same with the whole team. With my personality, I think I’ll be good everywhere I go. I’m good with people in general.
‘The fans are amazing. Sometimes when I’m out in town, they’ll say: “Oh, that’s Jeremie Frimpong”. So I’ll stop and have a chat with them.
‘When I walked around Manchester, I could just walk, minding my own business. Now it’s like: “Jeremie! Jeremie!”. It’s cool.’
Brown has already equated Frimpong’s youthful enthusiasm with that of home-grown star Kieran Tierney, who left Parkhead for Arsenal during the close season.
Certainly, Lennon has valued the injection of personality in a season where the pursuit of domestic honours is under pressure from a stronger Rangers challenge.
‘It’s the exuberance of youth but there is no malice or arrogance about him,’ said the Celtic manager. ‘He’s grateful for what he has and is making the most of it.
‘We only saw him on the bottom pitch in a development game around the end of July and, as an emerging talent, we thought he would fit the bill. Nick (Hammond) worked on it and we got the deal done.
‘His performances against high-calibre players in training were outstanding and it came to the point where you just couldn’t stop the progress. That’s not always the case with young players.
‘He lifts everybody, lifts the crowd and then there’s the style of his play. He’s always trying to be positive with the ball. In his defending, he tries to do things cleanly, you rarely see him go to ground. For his size, he’s deceptively strong.’
Born in Amsterdam, Frimpong has already represented the Dutch Under-20 team and hopes to step up an age bracket during the next international fortnight in March.
This desire to keep moving upwards helped push through his transfer out of City for an initial £350,000. Aware of the fact he was likely to become gridlocked in a few places behind first-team recognition, he decided to grasp the nettle and move to Glasgow. ‘There have been setbacks,’ he conceded.
‘I was playing Under-16s at City and one time they made me play with the Under-15s. Another time, I didn’t get picked for a tournament in England and I cried.
‘But I never doubted I would make it. I’ve always believed.’
Such setbacks only fuel Frimpong’s determination to enjoy himself. Having joined Ryan Christie in an improvised goal celebration at Tynecastle in midweek, he is working to ensure his handiwork catches up with his dancing feet.
He explained: ‘Ryan came up to me and said: “Come on, let’s do the Raheem Sterling”. I knew what it was but I wasn’t so sure, so we did it very quickly. But, hey, we’ve got new ones coming up.’