AS Roma boss, José Mourinho has revealed that Ghanaian starlet, Felix Afena-Gyan started his club trials by showing up for training in ‘fake trainers’ and has revealed why he decided to sign the youngster.
According to Mourinho, the teenager was a laughing stock at Roma’s training grounds because of the shoes he wore.
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The Portuguese coach gave Afena-Gyan his professional debut at Roma when he came on as a second half substitute against Cagliari in November 2021.
The 19-year-old has since not looked back with Mourinho even buying him a pair of Balenciaga shoes for scoring which according to the former Inter Milan boss, was to ensure his teammates stopped laughing at him for showing up to training with fake pair of trainers.
“He was there, he didn’t have a contract and he was coming all the time with fake trainers and all the guys there were having fun with him,” Mourinho told BT Sports.
“The moment he came here and the moment he scored a winning goal, I had to say: Felix, it’s time for the guys to stop bullying you, so let’s buy a proper pair of shoes,” he added.
Mourinho also expressed his delight at the changing situation of Afena-Gyan who is most likely to feature for the Black Stars at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar in November.
“Now he signs a contract, he goes to Ghana national team and he has fun with the other guys because the other guys are not going to the World Cup, but he is. So in this moment things are changing.”
The Ghanaian starlet could be winning his first career trophy under José Mourinho with AS Roma set to battle Feynoord in the finals of the UEFA Conference League in Tirana.