Jeremie Frimpong has continued his post-Celtic rise with the defender heading to the World Cup with the Netherlands.
The former Hoops full-back, who made the move from Parkhead to Germany with Bayer Leverkusen, has been highly impressive at club level and he has been rewarded with a place in Louis van Gaal's squad heading for Qatar. He is joined by another ex-Parkhead favourite in Virgil Van Dijk, who was always a cert to be included.
The 21-year-old, yet to win a senior cap, has picked up four appearances at Under-21 level for his country and could make a dream debut in the coming weeks. His stats for this current campaign make impressive reading with five goals and three assists from 20 appearances. He's also picked up Champions League experience this term and his rise to the very top continues with this latest landmark achievement.
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The Netherlands will be favourites to come through their section that contains Senegal, Ecuador and hosts Qatar.
Speaking about Frimpong recently in an interview with Bulinews.com, managing director Simon Rolfes said: "His profile as a fast player with incredible acceleration and good technique was clear, but the conclusion wasn’t, as he could improve other things. He created three or four possible chances per game, but his last ball wasn’t that good.
“I thought that if I didn't put my trust in our coaches to help him improve that, then when would I ever choose to sign a player? Because how many full-backs are able to create three or four possible chances? Not at lot.
“His ability to accelerate and decelerate is world-class. If you’re world-class at something at Celtic and in the Bundesliga, that’s also the case in other leagues. There were other things he had to improve when he came, and he has done fantastic. He has the right ambition to work on himself.
"The signing of Frimpong is a good example of how we use data. We were looking for a fast full-back, and he was directly on the list. Then we went deeper and analyzed him."
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