The difficult childhood in the Netherlands, the turning point with Bournemouth and the record transfer to Spain. Emery’s exterior is one of the revelations of the season. And Klopp looks at him closely …
Atalanta are looking for a win tonight with Villarreal to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League. And one of the main dangers he will face is Arnaut Danjuma, already nicknamed “Danjumagic” for what he does on the pitch. A 24-year-old boy who was almost unknown until last summer, when the Submarino Amarillo has decided to pay around 24 million euros to take it from Bournemouth, the second English series. Record acquisition for the Valencian club, which however had made many fans turn up their noses. But Danjuma took very little to win everyone over: in the second presence in the Liga he immediately scored his first goal, in the 2-2 with Atletico Madrid. And then he never stopped, taking ownership as a left winger in Emery’s 4-3-3 and loading the attack on his shoulders on several occasions, even when the leader Gerard Moreno was missing. And so far his total turnover has already recorded 7 goals and 4 assists.
Difficult childhood
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“Some days we ended up sleeping in the car because we had no other places to go”, Danjuma recounts the difficult conditions experienced in the Netherlands during his childhood. His name means “born on a Friday” in the language of his mother, a Nigerian who married a Dutchman while working in Lagos, Nigeria. Arnaut was born there, in 1997, with the family who after 4 years decided to move to the Netherlands. Shortly after, however, his parents separated and he remained with his mother, who struggled to keep him together with the two brothers. At 11 he manages to enter the youth sector of PSV and seems to be taking off. His path, however, is blocked: at 19 he remains free and ends up at Nec Nijmegen, where he shows off in two seasons between Eredivisie and team B. Club Brugge notices him and aims at us, taking him to Belgium. A few blasts arrive, especially the first goal in the Champions League, in 2018 against Atletico Madrid: a surface-to-air missile from a distance that strikes Oblak. And then the call of Bournemouth, with whom he does not find space in the Premier, but the Cherries are relegated and he uses last season in the Championship to make the definitive leap: he scores 15 goals and is voted MVP of the year by his fans. The Dutch national team also came from there, called up when Koeman was still there, and the transfer to Villarreal.
Features
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Danjuma’s electric style of play is surprising. He is an agile and fast attacking winger, who likes to continually challenge his direct opponent in one-on-one. He seems like one of those players who live only for the sake of success in dribbling, of deception, but when the time comes to be concrete, he does not hold back (the figures collected prove it). And when he scores he celebrates in a curious way, mimicking a snake, the cobra to be precise: a tribute to a friend of his who always did it when they played together.
His characteristics are those that can put Atalanta in crisis: a player capable in every point of the field to create numerical superiority and mess up Gasperini’s man scoring system. Just under 180 cm tall, it has a low center of gravity that allows it to turn lethal. Emery wanted him strongly and perhaps exaggerates a bit in describing him: “He is a striker who plays in the wing, like Mbappé or Cristiano Ronaldo”. No comparison, of course, but the incisiveness in the last third of the pitch and above all the pace that he manages to impose on the game often makes the difference. Danjuma goes fast, he has this ability to light up and go from 0 to 100 in seconds that forces his opponents to always be on the alert.
The show at Old Trafford
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At Atalanta Danjuma has already scored in the first leg, the 2-1 goal before Gosens’ final equalizer. Gerard Moreno serves him from the edge of the area, he cuts behind the defense and colds Musso with a right-footed shot. At Old Trafford he drove all of Manchester United crazy, especially poor Diogo Dalot who found him in front of him. Pointed and jumped continuously, almost mocked, both converging towards the center and going towards the bottom. Performance that earned him the MVP award, despite the Red Devils’ 2-1 victory.
Liverpool seem to have already put him in their sights to give a hand to Salah and Mané on Klopp’s flanks. In the past he had also ended up in the notebook of Roma, when he was playing at Brugge. Now, however, Villarreal is enjoying it and it will be Atalanta’s turn to try to stop him. Between the Goddess and the second round of Champions is Danjuma one of the main obstacles.
8 December – 12:03
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