Cody Gakpo is proud to be from Eindhoven and the honour of captaining PSV was huge for him, you can see the love for his former club when the Dutchman revealed who his childhood inspirations were.
Speaking on ‘A day with Gakpo’ on LFCTV Go, the 24-year-old said: “Obviously where I’m from, we all support PSV. So we had in the team, we had like [Ibrahim] Afellay, he played for PSV and Barcelona afterwards, so it was like everyone in the city wanted to be him.
“Then you had Messi, Ronaldo and all those big names. They were all an inspiration I think”.
To hear that Ibrahim Afellay was an inspiration for our No.18 shows that he will also be acting in the same role for younger players in his hometown today, after making the move to Liverpool.
It’s so important for young locals to have icons who have walked their streets and understand their stories, which is another reason why players like Trent Alexander-Arnold and Curtis Jones are so important for the Reds.
You can watch Gakpo on Afellay, Messi and Ronaldo (from 15:20) via LFCTV Go:
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