Aurèle Amenda on ...
... his start in Frankfurt: “It’s a great honour for me to play for Eintracht. I’m already feeling very settled. I’ve been doing my recovery here for the past five weeks, and two weeks ago I got to know my team-mates. Everything’s going well so far.”
... his move to Eintracht: “Frankfurt registered their interest in me back in mid-October. Since then, I’ve been certain that I wanted to come here. Eintracht are a big club with great values. It’s a great honour to be here. The club won the Europa League two years ago. I’m looking forward to playing in Europe.”
... his recovery: “I was a bit sad at first because of my injury [to a tendon in the back of his thigh], but I’ve made a lot of progress since then. I had my first training session with the team on Thursday. There’s a brilliant atmosphere. I still need to do a couple of individual sessions, but in America I’ll be able to train with the team again. My aim is to help the team, prove myself to the coach in training and in friendlies, and be successful.”
Djibi and I spoke on the phone a couple of times – he only had positive things to say about Eintracht Frankfurt.
Aurèle Amenda
... his strengths and weaknesses: “My main strengths are my duels. I love to defend my goal. I’m very calm on the ball and can also play at right or left-back. I’m versatile and hungry, but I’m still young too. I still need to make progress when it comes to reading the game, which is something that comes with experience. I also need to improve going forward – I want to score goals in Frankfurt. I think I can improve a lot here. I became a leader last season [and] I want to show that here too. I’m not going to hide.”
... Djibril Sow and Christoph Spycher: “Djibi and I spoke on the phone a couple of times – he only had positive things to say about Eintracht Frankfurt. Christoph Spycher [BSC Young Boys board member for sport] also recommended that I come here [and] stay in Bern until the summer. I think that helped me gain experience. I’m ready to play for Eintracht now.”
... his role models: “As a little boy, Sergio Ramos was my favourite defender. These days it’s Virgil van Dijk, because he has a very similar profile.”
... his language abilities: “French is my mother tongue. I learnt Swiss German in Bern and also speak a little English.”
