Currently under criticism in England, Senegalese forward Nicolas Jackson has received support from his agent, who compared him to… Vinicius Junior!
After the FA Cup defeat last week with Chelsea against Manchester City (1-0), followed by the thrashing (5-0) against Arsenal in the London derby for the 29th Premier League matchday, Nicolas Jackson is not going through his best period in his first season in the English capital. The former Villarreal player is suffering from a chronic lack of efficiency in front of goal, which has made him the target of criticism in England.
Didier Drogba, the Chelsea legend as a center-forward, recently came to the rescue of the player who was considered his successor upon his transfer. “Keep your head up and never stop working hard, it will pay off,” posted the Ivorian on his official X account (formerly Twitter) on Monday. This time, it’s the turn of the player’s agent, Diomansy Kamara, to defend his protégé.
When Kamara compares Jackson to Vinicius
“We’ve said it, he’s a 22-year-old young player. He’s still in development. He needs to improve. We know he lacks efficiency in front of goal. However, he has still scored 10 goals in the league this season, 14 in total, and provided 4 to 5 assists. For a first season, I think that’s not bad, but he’s still a young player,” pleaded the former Senegalese Lions striker (50 caps, 9 goals) to the local newspaper Record.
Clearly, Kamara is calling for patience for the Djibonker native. And to illustrate his point, he takes the example of Brazilian Vinicius Junior, criticized for his misses in front of goal at the beginning of his time at Real Madrid before becoming the leader of the Madrid attack after Karim Benzema’s departure last summer. “We remember Vinicius’ case. When he arrived at Real Madrid, he missed a lot of chances and everyone criticized him. But over time, he improved,” said the former Leicester player. Then, he puts things into perspective: “The most important thing, I think, is to create these opportunities. Then, we’ll need to adjust the aim. Even though we obviously would have liked him to score against City.”
