FC Porto of Portugal new left-back, Zaidu Sanusi has confessed that he has a strong ambition of getting to play in the English Premier League at some point in his career, but has stressed that he is currently happy with his early days in Oporto, megasportsarena.com reports.
Speaking against the backdrop of his recent maiden invitation to the Nigerian national team, Sanusi added that he is already thinking of creating waves with Porto, which he joined few weeks ago, and he reckoned that being able to churn out superlative performances with the Portuguese champions will boost his career to a large extent.
He is of a strong view that he would be able to attract better opportunities at club level and add to his national team prospects, which was set in motion early this week, when he was named in the Super Eagles’ list of 25 invitees for next month’s international friendly matches against Cote d’Ivoire and Tunisia.
Observers are unanimous that Sanusi got the call because he has shown huge improvement over the course of last season, during which he hit top marks while playing for lower division side, Santa Clara of Portugal, and the 23-year-old left-footer, who got his competitive debut for Porto on the opening day of the season against Sporting Braga last weekend, is determined to step up.
All this is coming just two years after he was starring in the third-tier of Portuguese football, but his profile soared with the move to Santa Clara, where he caught the eye of Porto, and his very recent summer transfer has now led to his first national team invite, of which Sanusi said it is a dream come true and delightful step forward for him.
The powerful and fleet-footed defender, who cited former Eagles’ left-back, Taye Ismaila Taiwo (The Tornado) and Bayern Munich of Germany’s versatile Nigerian-born star, David Alaba as the full-backs he looks up to, concluded by thanking everyone who made his call-up to the national team possible.
Sanusi told allnigeriasoccer.com: “I have seen so many Nigeria fans are commenting about me on social media. I am happy my dream has come true. I’d like to play in the Premier League in future but I know it won’t be easy, I don’t have any favourite club there.
“I am very happy to be in Porto now because many Nigerians played in FC Porto before, last year they had Chidozie Awaziem. I met Awaziem, I like him, he is a good player. We talked about things, life, now I’m here alone in FC Porto. The team is very good, I like the players.
“Before I never thought about receiving a call-up because I played in the third division in Portugal. I was not thinking of getting called up until I move to the Primeira Liga. One day my agent called and told me about my transfer to Santa Clara, I was very happy.
“He told me that if I played good Nigeria national team could call me but I didn’t think it was possible. When I was playing in Santa Clara people were saying I should be called up but I told them I was unaware of an invitation to the squad but I continued to pray, maybe my dream can come true.
“One of Rohr’s assistants residing in England (chief scout Tunde Adelakun) called me and told me I should be expecting a call-up to the national team, but he told me to keep it a secret as he wasn’t sure one hundred percent so I continued to pray.
“Right now I have not spoken to the head coach Rohr. The left-back I look up to in the world is David Alaba of Bayern Munich, many, many people say that I play like Alaba but I want to be myself, I like him so much.
“Alaba can defend and attack and I’m like him. It’s very difficult for a left-back to attack and defend but Alaba does that very well. Many years ago I used to watch Taye Taiwo, sometimes I search for him on YouTube to see how he plays.”
