Gambia’s wonder kid, Ousman Manneh aka Mamanding has transformed himself from a refuge to the most talked about young players in Germany after the 18-year-old scored four times for his club last week in a pre-season match.
Speaking to FutiSport Online, the new revelation, Mamanding said he was nervous when he had the call up to join the first team for this pre-season game.
"I was nervous and am surprised myself. If earlier one had told me, I would not have believed.
"In the past I've always imagined what it would be like. Now I'm in the middle of it. A dream has come true," he said.
Ousman received in his formative stages at Rush Academy whom he praised for the training he had in his decade long stint with academy.
"You learn football, as if you go to school", he said. "You learn the basics, I've learned there everything you need in football," he told a local radio station in Germany.
According to the young man, he spent time watching past football matches on Sky Sports after training.
"I watch videos, to look at the players who are playing far above me, this motivates me and always reminds me that I have to keep working hard," he said.
He also acknowledged that this is just the beginning of his professional career and has to remain humble and steadfast.
He added: "For the people in the Gambia who know me, this is no surprise," he said. "Since I was little, I always wanted to play football. That's the most important thing for me."
The four time German champions are quite chuffed with their acquisition and his latest prowess raised hopes amongst the clubs hierarchy and fans. The club's Honorary Chairman Klaus-Dieter Fischer was heavily inspired by Manneh's performances so far. "He moves especially great," said the 74-year-old.
They have high hopes in the young sensation, but want to give him time to continue his development. The club's assistant coach for the U23s, Florian Bruns, described him as technically good and strong.
"He brings an incredible amount of talent with him, he can use his body strength well, he is incredibly quick, technically very good and moves forward with the ball pretty well," said Bruns.
He can also go past players at will. That's incredible, most players have one or two things they do well but he has good potential in many areas."
"Of course, he's still very young and has a long way to go, we will just have be patient with him and certainly not to set high goals for him. " He added.
The U23 manager Alexander Nouri also has high regards for manneh and was full of praise for the star
"As early as the autumn of last year we have monitored Ousman closely.
"Since the beginning of the year he is a regular with us during training and this was reflected in one way or the other in our warm-up matches.
"He is a young player who has many talents with great potentials. For us it is an exciting task to contribute in helping him further his sports development," added Nouri
Source: FutiSport