Kwaku Frimpong was pointed in our direction by former Wimbledon hard man Ben Thatcher - and the young midfielder is aiming to be a key presence in this season’s FA Youth Cup.
The young Dons take on Oxford United in the competition tonight (7.00 pm kick-off at Thame United) with Rob Tuvey's side aiming to create a bit of their own history after Wimbledon twice reached the last-16 in recent seasons.
First though comes a difficult tie versus Oxford, and Kwaku is determined to make a difference in the midfield engine room.
“When the opposition have the ball I’m very good at regaining possession for the team," he said. "I think I carry a lot of energy to help the team, and that I’m a good presence in the squad.
“I got released by Crystal Palace at a young age, and then I didn’t really play football much, but I started playing Sunday League football for Chipstead, and one of my team-mates was Ben Thatcher’s son. Ben called Robbo and told him about me, saying that I’m a Wimbledon player. The coaches had a look at me and they liked what they saw.
"Everyone knows that the FA Youth Cup is a big competition for young players. We all know what it means to us, no one wants to go out in the first round and everyone wants to go far in the competition. As a group, I feel we will have that passion to go far, and to go further than we did last year. We all have personal targets, but as a group we want to progress."
Due to the current circumstances with Covid-19 cases on the rise, Under-18s manager Rob Tuvey thanked academy staff and our Health and Safety Officer Bob Sherwood for putting in the hard work to allow tonight's game to go ahead.
"It has been a lot of hard work. It’s not a nice time at the moment with people being ill. We all got tested and we had good results and that’s down to the hard work of staff, including Michael Hamilton, Jenna Richards, Michael Cook, and Bob Sherwood. It’s a real credit to them that we are able to get this game on.
“We haven’t been great so far this season. We are not hiding from that in terms of results, but we feel that we are improving eaach week as a squad. We have a very young squad and our injury list is quite long at the moment, but it’s allowed Under-15s and Under-16s to step-up into our league programmes. We will see a few Under-16s in the line-up tonight, which is brilliant for them, because it sets them up for the future. We hope the future is bright for them.
“We are under no illusionis that this is going to be a tough game, but that’s what Wimbledon do; we will go there, stand up, and match them. We have made suire that we are ready for tonight. My job is to make sure that I’m getting the berst out of these boys each day."
Take a look below at Rob Cornell's full interview with Kwaku and Rob.