He can speak five languages – and is learning a sixth – and played club football in four different countries before his 21st birthday but after coming a long way in a short space of time, Amadou Onana reveals that he feels at home at Everton.
The midfielder will turn out in front of the fans at Goodison Park - who have taken him to their hearts - for the last time before hopefully jetting off to the World Cup finals in Qatar with Belgium when Frank Lampard’s side host Leicester City in the Premier League this evening. But while he’s only been on Merseyside for a few weeks, he’s settled in both on and off the pitch.
Onana said: “I think everyone can see that I’m just loving it here, everything is great. There are very ambitious people at the club who are working very hard and I feel at home.
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“Everybody is quite passionate over here, they sleep football, eat football, eat Everton. Whatever they do they think about the club and football, so it is just great being here right now. I just like that passion to sink in. It’s an extra motivation for us as players.”
Everton sealed a £33.5million deal for Onana in August, under the noses of Premier League rivals West Ham United, managed by the former long-serving Blues boss David Moyes. Asked what attracted him to Everton, the Belgium international said: “I think everything. The club, the passion, the fans, the manager as well which played a big role.
“I like his idea of playing football, his vision, what he was seeing in me as a player, all those sort of things.
“I spoke to Roberto (Martinez) and Rom (Lukaku) and both of them just spoke in a very good way about the club. They told me that I will enjoy it. They were right!”
Onana arrived on Merseyside to a hero’s welcome even before he joined the club, receiving rapturous applause when emerging in the directors’ box during Everton’s opening match of the season against Chelsea. It was something that stuck with him and he said: “That was one of the key moments.
“I walked in and everybody started cheering, that was really special. After that I was like, I’m signing for sure.”
Such adulation is all a far cry from when Zulte Waregem, a Belgian top flight club formed in July 2001, just a month before Onana was born, told him he was going to be let go aged 16. He said: “I nearly got released as an Under-16 when I was in Belgium at Zulte Waregem. They told me I was not good enough and I wasn’t going to make it.
“Hearing that as a teenager is quite tough. I had to work a lot to get to where I am. That is where my confidence comes from. I went on trial and made it at Hoffenheim.”
Asked if he thought his former junior club now regretted that decision, Onana said: “I think so. I wasn’t worried because I believed so hard in myself. I thought just work your a*** off (he then apologises for using a swear word) and you will get there.”
In terms of physically getting there, Onana was taken by his sister Melissa, who is now his agent. He said: “She took me to Germany and she plays a big role in my career and life. She has made a lot of sacrifices to enable me to follow my dream, including quitting her job.
“I am lucky to have her. She has been to a few Everton games but she needed a holiday because she had a lot to do during the summer.
“I am living on my own, my family is one hour away in Brussels so they come back and forth. They have been over for a game, all of them, and they were just blown away by the atmosphere at Goodison like I was.”
Indeed, Onana has struck up a special connection with both the Everton fans - who he often attempts to gee up during matches - and his team-mates, with a clip of him dancing with Alex Iwobi proving particularly popular. He said: “This bond that I have with these fans is quite special. I think they play a huge role in how we have been playing the last weeks, they give us that extra motivation that we kind of need in a couple of games. They play a big role in that success.
“So everybody has seen that yes? (the dancing clip with Iwobi) We didn’t want to make a big thing of it but it went viral, he’s a very, very good guy and has helped me a lot in my first weeks as well and we have a very good relationship.
“We just have a great group of lads who are willing to help each other and just stick together. I’ve never had something like this before, it’s very special.”
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