Ajaxstriker Lassina Traoré suddenly became world news on October 24, after his five goals during the 0-13 win against VVV-Venlo. However, this explosion of goals was preceded by a process of trial and error, he says in an interview with the FIFA site.
The striker from Burkina Faso came over at the beginning of 2019 – after an internship in Amsterdam – from Ajax Cape Town, Ajax’s then sister club from South Africa. During one of his first training sessions, he faced the opposite Matthijs de Ligt. “He sat on top of me, in ways of speaking down to my underpants”, Traoré looks back. “He was just as strong as I am and also very fast. He took all the balls from me. That would be very different now, but then I realized how big the step was and how hard I would have to work.”
In retrospect, Traoré arrived at Ajax at exactly the right time: the A-selection was at that time on a victory march in the Champions League and would eventually even almost reach the final. “That was incredible. My first season was difficult, but I am proud to have been able to experience this adventure up close.”
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