Jeremie Frimpong interview: ‘When I first came to the Bundesliga, I struggled’

Jeremie Frimpong makes being a footballer look so much fun.

But why not?

He and his Bayer Leverkusen team-mates have just won their first Bundesliga title. Frimpong was the life and soul of the party. He rode a wave of delirious supporters off the pitch at full time. Back in the tunnel, he gave a succession of interviews that lit up social media. On a balcony at the far end of the ground, as afternoon turned into evening and after Leverkusen lifted their trophy, he took the microphone and led tens of thousands of fans in a chorus of chants.

Four days later, he scored the goal that knocked West Ham out of the Europa League and kept Leverkusen’s remarkable unbeaten run going, moving them ever closer to a treble.

It was an incredible week. The kind that some players chase for their entire career.

But when Frimpong speaks to The Athletic, all of that is yet to happen. It’s the Wednesday night before the title-clinching game against Werder Bremen and he’s being coy. That Bundesliga title is still an “if”, despite the 16-point lead, and he talks instead about his early days in Germany, the difficulties he faced when he arrived and how those experiences shaped the player he has become.

“When I first came to the Bundesliga, it was hard to get used to it,” he says. “Coming from Scotland, the tempo is much faster. So are the players. Don’t get me wrong, in Scotland there were some quality players too, but the standard is different. I really struggled at the start.”

He was young when he arrived in Germany. Frimpong was born in Amsterdam but grew up in England. He came through Manchester City’s academy and moved to Celtic in 2019, before joining Leverkusen for €11million (£9.4m; $11.8m in today’s exchange rates) in January 2021, when he was 20.

“In the beginning, it was never like, ‘I can’t make it here’ or ‘This is not my level’. But in the Bundesliga, I would come across players who were just as quick as me. I couldn’t just rely on my speed anymore and I couldn’t beat players as easily. I had to work really, really hard. Defensively as well, because the quality going the other way was higher.”

There were some tough moments. It was not until his second season, 2021-22, that Frimpong became a starter in Leverkusen. His transition to the role he plays today has been gradual but has almost taken him full circle in his career. From attacker to defender, he now plays as an ultra-aggressive wing-back.

“I’ve always been on the right side. I started at Manchester City as a right winger, but then as I moved through the age groups — I think it was when I was in the under-16s — that’s when I moved to right-back.

“But at Celtic, when we had the ball I was playing like a winger. The actual winger would move inside, drag his marker with him, and I would just go out and into the space. It was quite similar when I first came to Leverkusen.”

That Leverkusen was not the same as this one. Frimpong joined a club in 2020 who were, with Peter Bosz, working under their third head coach in four years. Another two would follow, Hannes Wolf and Gerardo Seoane, with Leverkusen darting in and out of the Champions League places, before a disastrous start to 2022-23 saw Seoane dismissed, Xabi Alonso appointed and history changed.

Alonso’s effect has been profound: on the team, the Bundesliga, and Frimpong as well.

“Everybody understands him. When he has an idea, he can make it make sense to all the players. I always feel like he knows how to use my abilities — like running into space, one-on-ones, counter-attacks.”

This season has shown Frimpong to be much more than the sum of the parts he describes. His speed and vitality are fundamentals, and his skill against defenders. But his game is also about timing and craft. From wing-back, he is often Leverkusen’s furthest man forward and, for the first time in his career, he has reached 10 goals across all competitions. When he scored his side’s first goal of the Bundesliga season, at home to RB Leipzig in August, it was — tellingly — from inside the six-yard box.

He is not the player who arrived three and a half years ago. He has always been watchable, but he’s more destructive. Not individually, but as an element within a highly dangerous team.

That matchcraft imparted by Alonso is a difference, he says, but so is the way he plays the game and how he sees his role. It has had to adapt to his growing reputation as, perhaps, the most attack-minded wing-back in Europe.

“I know when to take my opponent on; that’s definitely it. I know when to release the ball.

“I’ve had to change my game a lot because teams tend to double-team me now. When they would first do that, I would still just try to take the defence on. Two or three players. I was doing the same thing and I’d lose the ball.

Frimpong shields the ball from Dortmund’s Nico Schlotterbeck during a 1-1 draw in April (Sascha Schuermann/AFP via Getty Images)

“I still try that sometimes, don’t get me wrong, but when they gang (up on) me, there’s always a spare man, and I’ve become so much better at using that. I know, for instance, that if I’m getting double-teamed, then because of the style we play, the No 6 will always be free and that pass will be there.

“That’s just about team chemistry. It’s the same for the other players. One of my attributes is speed and how to attack space, so the team knows what I’m going to do and where I’m going to be.”

The data supports that. According to fbref.com, Frimpong is in the 99th percentile in 11 different per 90 statistical categories (including carries into the penalty box, touches in the penalty box, and shots on target), but averages 13.1 progressive passes received per 90, describing what a reliable attacking outlet he has been for Leverkusen and how often he has been in the right position at the right moment.

Frimpong laughs easily. But there is a self-deprecating layer to him, too, and a seriousness to how he talks about his need to improve. He is not bothered about being reduced solely to his speed, as so many players in his position are — “the most important thing is that my team-mates and fans like what I do” — but he is clearly eager to embellish his game in whatever way he can.

“My positioning has to get better. I need to read the game more, with the ball and without them. It’s probably true that I’m an attacking full-back and everyone can see that. But I want to be in positions where I’m not relying too much on my speed.

“And I feel like my end product has improved a lot over the years, but the positions I get into in the box, I still think I can do way more.”

His conversion of attacking opportunities can still be an issue. In the West Ham game at the London Stadium, he spurned an excellent one-on-one chance to score. He made amends quickly, forcing in that equaliser a few minutes later, but it showed an area that is still under development.

It’s as much about remaining calm as it is anything else.

“It’s difficult to do,” he says, “but you become used to it. I was always getting in the positions and it would just end with nothing. The coaches would tell me: ‘Jeremie, you get in these areas three or four times a game, you need to do so much more’. And, yeah, I knew that. I’d rush everything.

“In a sense, I’d get too excited. Because I was coming from deep, I’d run all that way and be like… ‘I’m here now!’ and just have no control. So, sometimes I’d run into offside positions or make a bad decision.”

“When I talk to our actual attackers, they always say that when they have chances they relax. If it happens, it happens. They’re not rushing and that’s getting better now.”

It seems counter-productive: asking one of Europe’s most incendiary players to slow down. Maybe, but this is a career that has covered a lot of ground in a short space of time. From academy graduate to Bundesliga champion, via a Scottish treble in just five years. By the end of the season, Jeremie Frimpong might already have won six trophies by the age of 23.

He’s in a hurry.

(Top photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)