Pione Sisto . denmark

UGANDAN-BORN Pione Sisto plays in the Danish Superliga for FC Midtjylland as an attacking midfielder.

He was voted ‘Player of the Year 2014’ by the Danish Footballers’ Association.

It is believed scouts from Milan, Porto, Juventus and Arsenal have all shown interest in the Danish midfielder. Despite Sisto living in Denmark since he was two months old, he did not become a citizen until the end of 2014.

The 20-year-old only received dispensation by FIFA granting him permission to play at the tournament, without having to wait the obligatory five years following his 18th birthday, a month before the tournament kicked off in the Czech Republic. For Pione, there was a very real chance he wasn’t going to be able to represent his country at this tournament but thankfully he did – and within 30 minutes of his professional international debut he set the tournament alight (or at least set the tournament alight for me).

Denmark were one of the favourites, mainly due to the fact that seven players from the squad had senior caps. Experts in Denmark were calling the Under-21s the best youth team the country had ever produced.

Despite some superb speedy creative play, Denmark found themselves losing 1-0 to their Czech hosts in the opening game. They equalised in the 56th minute and Sisto was introduced a minute later. His impact was immediate and Denmark pushed for a winner.

The hosts dropped on the back foot, rarely getting out of their own half. In the 82nd minute, Sisto struck a beautiful free-kick which flew just over the bar. But with six minutes to go Sisto found the ball in the box, turned cleverly and toe-poking it into the back of the net, giving Denmark the win.

It was a fairytale ending for Sisto but, sadly, the rest of the tournament didn’t pan out so well. He made little impact in the second match against Germany (which they lost 3-0, being subbed off in the 72nd minute).

Sisto didn’t feature in the third group game, a 2-0 win over Serbia, which saw them qualify from the group as winners and into a semi-final against Sweden.

He didn’t start but came off the bench in the 65th minute to great applause from the Danish support. However, he couldn’t help his side get through to the final, losing 4-1.

Sisto probably isn’t on anyone else’s ‘players of the tournament’ or ‘people to look out for’ lists when looking back at this year’s U21 tournament but for the romantics it’s

a story worth telling.