With time flying by and the conclusion of the 2016 Swedish premier
league season, the big buzz in Europe these days is where the whiz kid
born to Eritrean parents will end up transitioning into the next phase
of his career. In order to understand the importance of his story, let
us pause for a second and find out more about this new and young
phenomena known as Alexander Isak.
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It should be recalled that just a couple of weeks ago another up and
coming Eritrean athlete surprised the world as the youngest New York
City Marathon champion in the history of the event. While this event has
been around for a long time, the amazing accomplishment by Girmay
Ghebreslassie put Eritrea on the spotlight as he did in Beijing after
winning the IAAF marathon. How can anyone forget the success that Daniel
Teklehaimanot had when participating and winning a stage at the Tour De
France. Add to that the world record holder and only Olympic medal
holder for Eritrea, Zeresenay Tadesse's amazing career in the half
marathon as well as the 2015 player of the year award in Sweden by
Eritrean national soccer team and current San Jose Earthquakes star
Henok Goitom. As we speak today Cyclists, runners, soccer players and
sporadically other athletes with Eritrean roots in different sports are
starting to flourish at an amazing rate. Each time Eritrea's martyrs
turn in their graves, they are looking back at the sacrifices made for
this generation that is starting to make progress at the world stage
where Eritrea has always belonged. What are chances of a teenager from
any nationality being sought after by 90 soccer clubs at one soccer
game? Then more teams showed up about 120 of them sending their scouts
to look at this ERITREAN youngster who has taken the soccer world by
storm. Those martyrs are really talking and saying that we are just now
starting to expose the power that is ERITREA!
*Getting to know Alexander Isak.*
Alexander was born in Solna a suburb of Stockholm City in 1999 in the
same place where another great Eritrean Henok Goitom was born in.
Alexander has been with AIK since the age of six and has risen through
the ranks, training with the senior squad for the first-time two years
ago. While Sweden provided him with many opportunities to be good, the
work ethics came from his Eritrean roots. It is important to note that
with his parents and the strong Eritrean community in Sweden as a
support system he picked up a lot of the positive attitudes by
witnessing the good moral values of the Eritrean culture. One of his
coaches between the ages of 9-13 was also an Eritrean whose great
contributions to AIK Stockholm has paid dividends. We spoke to coach
Nahom Ghidey who always knew that Alexander had the potential to become
something big. In such a short period of time within his first
professional contract since May of this year, he has scored 11 times
including some game winning goals for AIK.
*The Drive, the work ethic, the maturity: The Eritrean way.*
Every athlete has an inspiration and some body that they look up to and
Alexander is no different. He mentions in interviews that he looks up to
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whom the blogger had the pleasure of spending two
weeks when the legend signed a contract with PSG in 2012. Witnessing him
first hand during training periods at Princeton University in New Jersey
and getting to interview Ibrahimovic, there is no doubt that he will go
down as one of the best soccer players in the world. So like most young
people and players around the world Alexander's choice as one of his
role models is not a bad one considering that he is being compared to
Zlatan by many. However, his real role model is 32-year-old Henok
Goitom, of the San Jose Earthquakes who shares the Eritrean roots with
him. The families of both players are friends and Henok has been more
than impressed with his young protege that seems to be doing wonders at
a very young age.
Eri-International sports blog would like to strongly emphasize that the
reason this blog was established more than 9 years ago was to inspire
and share stories that can benefit the Eritrean-diaspora community as
well as anyone who is inspired by the athletic prowess of Eritrean and
African origin athletes. A Nigerian team mate of Alexander Isak who won
an Olympic medal describes him as "Thoughtful" when talking about the
maturity level of Alexander. During a question and answer session with
Swedish Media AIK team mate Chinedu Obasi who has also been playing
incredibly well said this of Alexander based on his achievements on and
off the field.
“His performance is like boxing in the ring. All predictions are based
on performances in the ring, and Alexander’s accomplishments on the
field speak for themselves,” Obasi told Swedish newspaper Expressen
after the Djurgardens game - the same day as Isak’s 17th birthday. He
went on to add, “Moreover, he is a nice person. I hope he continues to
keep his cool and fight on. Then he can go far,” the Nigerian
international and Olympic bronze medalist added.
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Considering that Eritrea is only 25 years old the combination of
diaspora kids and Eritrean youth seem to be doing wonders in the
international sports arena. Sports or Athletics in general is a good way
to make yourself a better person and Eri-International sports will
document many more future athletes while also looking back at previous
Eritreans who have inspired many but whose stories have not been told to
the masses. Alexander Isak is a reincarnation of some of the great
Eritrean soccer players who were way ahead of their time but because of
the political situation within the horn of Africa, their abilities and
skills were never noticed on the international scene. Some even decided
to forego their careers to make sure Eritrea became INDEPENDENT! and
paid with their lives.
*Where will Alexander Isak end up? *
*
*
With so many teams looking at Alexander at the moment it is going to be
tough to predict which team will have him. The one main factor is who is
willing to forge up the
14-16 million British pounds that his current team AIK is asking for.
This price will be the highest paid for any player in the history of
Swedish Soccer, add to that the fact that he was the youngest player to
ever score in the Swedish premier league and history has already been
made. The Eritrean humbleness in him can be seen each time he is all
over the media on and off the field. Isak is well aware of the interest
in his services that has been bubbling away for months, although his
commitment right now seems to be with AIK and not a European giant until
2018. For soccer fans all over the world whichever team he plays for he
is destined to be the next big star. At the moment the teams that are
really putting up big fights to acquire his services are Paris St.
Germain, Liverpool, Manchester United, Napoli, Juventus, Chelsea, Bayern
Munich, Ajax, Real Madrid, Barcelona based on some of the latest news we
have been following. However, it is very difficult to figure out where
he will end up. Negotiations have been on going and AIK Stockholm will
be milking the price as far as they can go. The recently turned 17
year-old is the talk of the soccer world. Even Zlatan Ibrahimovic whom
he is compared to has been known to follow his games and has been
advocating for his teams (Juventus, Paris St. Germain, Ajax & now
Manchester United) to grab him at any cost. For example, according to
Italian media, Qatari Nasser Al-Khelafi owner of PSG has offered 10
million pounds for his transfer but that amount was short of the amount
that his Swedish club want even though it would surpass the most amount
of money spent for Ibrahimovic's transfer when he was traded from Malmo
during his heyday in Sweden. AIK will not settle down for any lower than
between 15 & 16 million pounds to even initiate any negotiations while
Liverpool have submitted a contract for Alexander which also has been
compared to some of the biggest transfers in Europe.
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Eritreans Henok Goitom & Alexander Isak _at_ practice for AIK
In a recent interview about Alexander, his Eritrean hero Henok Goitom
had this to say about Alexander, "If you educate Alexander Isak, in a
good way, he can have a big future. He already has a good understanding
of the game." For millions of fans including soccer fans in Eritrea who
are obsessed with the British Premier league Sunday mornings may start
to become exciting as they watch one of their own on the big screens
should any of the Premier league end up with him. Even if he goes to any
of the other teams the bottom line is Alexander Isak has made Eritrea
proud even if it was through Sweden. It is also to be noted that
Alexander is on the list of this year's Swedish choice for the rookie of
the year in the Allsvenskan (Swedish Premier League). Eri-International
Sports blog will continue to inform you on the choice he makes and will
attempt to follow his career where ever he ends up. Meanwhile, it's time
to rejoice as the Eritrean sports talents are popping up everywhere and
making this nation of heroic people proud. No matter what Eritrea will
prevail through sports, education, Science, medicine, Technology, music,
film, entertainment etc.......
For Eri-International Sports Blog.
Mike Seium
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Posted By Blogger to Eri-International Sports
<http://eri-internationalsports.blogspot.com/2016/11/alexander-isak-wonder-kid-with-eritrean.html>
at 11/16/2016 01:32:00 PM
Received on Tue Jan 24 2017 - 06:38:24 EST
