Afriyie Acquah has been officially unveiled as a Sampdoria player, Allsports.com.gh can exclusively report.
It’s not often that a player after signing a contract plays for the club before he is unveiled to the media, but it has happened to Afriyie Acquah.
Acquah signed to join the club on loan on transfer deadline day whilst he was still at the Africa Cup of Nations battling with the Black Stars and only made his move formal after passing medicals last Thursday on arrival from the tournament.
Sampdoria coach, Sinisa Mihajlovic pushed the workaholic midfielder straight into the Sampdoria side which lost their Serie A match day 23 tie at Chievo Verona on Sunday even before they player could be officially welcomed to the club.
On Tuesday afternoon however, Acquah was officially unveiled and presented to the media live on Sampdoria TV by club official, Carlo Osti who described in detail Acquah’s career statistics in the Italian top league as well as his physical strength and ability to break the game.
“We are very excited to present Acquah, a player that we strongly wanted. We chased him in the summer but it was not possible to get him, but today comes on loan from Hoffenheim, which is a redemption in favour of Sampdoria,”Sampdoria sports director, Osti said.
“As you already saw him in Verona (against Chievo), the coach has already said he is a midfielder with skills that we were missing and that will be very helpful,” Carlo Osti added full of admiration for the 22 year old.
Responding full of smiles, Acquah expressed his delight to have landed at Sampdoria who have the option to buy him permanently in June.
“I am happy to be here. I like the locker room, I already knew Marchionni, Mesbah, Okaka at Parma and I played as a kid with (Alfred) Duncan in Ghana. Eto’o? I can only be happy to play with him, we are like brothers,” Acquah said.
“The coach asked me if I could play just few days after arriving from the Africa Cup of Nations and I said yes. Too bad we lost 2-1, but now there is the derby. Do I know what it means? Sure, Cassano and my comrades have explained it to me. I expect to play like when I was at Parma and I watched him on TV,” the Black Stars midfielder said of facing Antonio Cassano and Genoa in the Serie A derby on Wednseday.
Sunyani born Acquah also indicated his readiness to play anywhere in midfield to achieve the ambitions of Coach Mihajlovic.
“In Parma, I covered all three roles in midfield but coach Donadoni then chose to play me on the right. However now all we have to do is focus to work hard to win the derby.,” Acquah said. Follow @thedonplato
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