Mohammed Kudus exclusive: ‘The first season at West Ham was just the beginning’

By
James BAOUCH
-
0
23

Mohammed Kudus signed off last season with one of the best goals of the 2023-24 Premier League.

His overhead kick for West Ham United against Manchester City on the campaign’s final afternoon in May shocked his title-bound opponents and briefly raised Arsenal’s hopes of their first championship in 20 years. Yet the person coolest about it all was the man who produced that moment of balletic brilliance.

“It’s one of the actions that barely happens in the game,” Kudus tells The Athletic after what he describes as a “calm” summer for him, in contrast to that explosive brilliance on show at the Etihad Stadium. “Normally, you visualise the action in your head, and then you just go for it. When the ball came and I set it up in the air for myself, I already had a plan that this was what I was going to do.”

His finish flew past Stefan Ortega to reduce City’s 2-0 advantage going into the interval. “I’m glad that what I visualised in my head went perfectly,” he says. “It was good to do it on a day like that when the title is being decided and to give the Arsenal fans some incentive.”

City went on to win 3-1 and secure their fourth Premier League in a row, but Kudus had at least capped his first season in England with a collector’s item.

Starting where he left off — with a goal as good as that — will be tough when the matches start again next month, but the 23-year-old Ghana international is ready to build on the solid foundations laid down last term after he joined from Ajax of the Netherlands for an initial €41.5million (£35m/$44.8m at the current exchange rates). There were 14 goals and six assists across 45 appearances in three competitions as West Ham finished ninth in the 20-club top flight and got to the Europa League quarter-finals.

Those numbers will serve as a benchmark for the year ahead.

“Setting the standard is not as difficult as maintaining it,” Kudus says. “The way my first season went, the expectations are even higher now. It’s going to be even tougher, because now everybody knows me in the league — defenders and players around me. That’s why I have to raise my level and keep up the consistency.

“I’m still far from my top abilities and what I can achieve in the league. The first season was just the beginning.”


Kudus, right, scores his spectacular overhead kick against Manchester City (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)

As outlined by The Athletic this week, Kudus’ West Ham contract includes an £85million ($107m) release clause, open to Premier League clubs from the end of the season to June 30. It was not triggered this summer and therefore does not become active again until next May. Another impressive campaign may tempt suitors out of the woodwork then.

Kudus is ambitious, and keen to go up a level with West Ham after that top-half finish. To that end, he is philosophical about any interest from elsewhere. “When you perform at those kinds of levels in a league like this, it’s normal to have rumours and hear about other clubs (being interested),” he says. “But right now my focus is getting prepared for the new season and then we’ll see how everything goes.

“From Denmark (playing at Nordsjaelland, 2018-20), Holland (with Ajax, 2020-23) to England, I’m definitely a player that likes challenges. When I feel like I’m at a point where I’ve really killed it at a specific club and then there’s an opportunity, I would definitely challenge myself. I don’t want to get complacent and be used to the same thing over and over again.

“But that was my first season at West Ham, and I believe I can do even more than last season.”

That overhead kick against City was not the only stand-out moment.

Take, for example, his second against Freiburg of Germany in March’s Europa League last-16 second leg at the London Stadium, when he collected the ball deep in his own half, accelerated beyond three opponents and scored to make it 5-0 on the night. The solo effort was voted the tournament’s best in 2023-24 and also the club’s goal of the season.

“When I see space with the ball at my feet, I don’t care what’s in front of me. I have to go for it,” Kudus says. “There was an opportunity to do it on my own. When I took it over the centre line, I was just trying to attack the space and then see what’s going to happen.

“I was moving forward with the ball, I had decisions to make. I’m glad I made the right ones. Most importantly I had to score after a run like that.”

He deserved a sit-down after such a goal, so went in search of a steward’s stool near the corner flag to complete his trademark celebration.

“There’s no deep meaning to it. With my style of play, I like to entertain the fans at the stadium,” Kudus says. “So I thought about doing something different that people can talk about. That’s what came into my head. Football is entertainment and I try to make the fans feel the worth of the ticket they bought with what I do on and off the pitch.”

It didn’t always go entirely to plan. After scoring away to Newcastle a couple of weeks later, he gestured to a ball boy to pass him his stool, but the request was met with a confused expression.


Kudus enjoys a sit down with his team-mates after that Freiburg epic (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

“That story was projected differently,” Kudus says. “He couldn’t hear what I was saying, because it was so loud (at St James’ Park). It was not that he didn’t want to give it to me. So I sat on the (advertising) boards instead. Because of how the pictures came out, it was translated differently.”

Kudus had scored his first Premier League goal against the same opponents in October, having had to wait for his opportunity at West Ham. Not signed until the east London club’s season was three games old, he played only 95 league minutes across his first six league appearances — all as a substitute.

“The start was a bit difficult because I was buckled up and ready to get going,” he says. “But sometimes you have to lay back a bit and get used to everything; get it slowly and then take it on. I had so much belief and confidence in myself but the people with more experience, like David Moyes (West Ham’s manager at the time), knew better how the league was (than the Dutch Eredivisie).”


Kudus’ celebration became a feature of West Ham’s season (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

That gradual integration worked.

Aside from the two matches he missed while playing at the Africa Cup of Nations in January, beginning with the October 29 home game against Everton, he started every one of West Ham’s remaining Premier League fixtures and completed all but four of them. Two of his four early exits (after 87 and 88 minutes respectively) were to accept the applause following key performances in December — a 2-1 away win against Tottenham Hotspur, and having scored twice as visitors Wolverhampton Wanderers were beaten 3-0.

“The support of team-mates and people around helped me settle quite well,” Kudus says, happy to admit that the intensity and schedule took some getting used to when also managing recovery time. “I didn’t come straight into the Premier League — playing in the Europa League and Carabao Cup (his first four West Ham starts came in those competitions) helped — because there were high expectations.

“It makes gelling with the team much easier and then abilities flow naturally.”

Kudus’ appearances in the claret and blue have been decorated — as the graphic below illustrates — by flurries of attacking intent with dribbles all over the field, but in particular in the attacking third and more off West Ham’s right flank than the left.

“It’s one of my biggest attributes,” says Kudus. “I play with so much risk and try to create stuff in the game out of nothing. I’m glad I found myself in an environment where I’m allowed to do that and I’ll keep doing it.”

Only Manchester City’s Jeremy Doku — also in his first season, after arriving from Rennes in France — attempted more take-ons per 90 minutes in the 2023-24 Premier League among players to see a minimum 900 minutes of game time.

That positivity resulted in six Kudus assists in the Premier League, the same as team-mates Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta. Those three players made up West Ham’s attacking trio for most of the season.

“I enjoyed it so much, especially the adaptability to play in different positions: left, right, striker or No 10,” Kudus says. “The mixture helps a lot and makes us less predictable for defenders. We switched in four positions and I had so much fun playing with those guys. I look forward to it happening again.”

During the summer break, he has spoken to the club’s new head coach, former Spain national team boss Julen Lopetegui. “It was just a basic introduction about how he wants to play attacking football,” Kudus says. “We’ll find out more about how he wants to play in pre-season (which has now started at the club’s Rush Green training base), but it was good to find out his plans for the team.”

Kudus was speaking exclusively to The Athletic to mark the launch of his new partnership with Skechers.

He will wear the brand’s boots from the start of the coming season, following in the footsteps of Arsenal and Ukraine’s Oleksandr Zinchenko and Harry Kane of Bayern Munich and England. The latter launched the American footwear company’s first foray into football last year.

“Kane is the big name that made us more aware about it at the start — now maybe more people will start wearing them after me, too,” Kudus says. “I remember when we were about to play against Nottingham Forest (in February), Anthony Elanga was wearing them. At that time I was trying them, so I spoke to him about them.”

The link-up will also help Kudus give back, as he and Skechers work on an initiative to distribute more boots in his home country.

“It fits with my vision about the impact I want to have in my community,” Kudus explains. “I like to donate football equipment to my former local teams in Ghana at the end of every season because I remember, when I was growing up, boots were hard to get. So I thought this was a beautiful opportunity to make it easier for those playing in my community team.”


Kudus playing for Nordsjaelland in a friendly against FC Seoul at La Manga in 2018 (Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)

From his home in Nima on the outskirts of Ghana’s capital Accra, via the country’s Right To Dream academy — which now has links with new MLS franchise San Diego FC — Kudus debuted for Nordsjaelland in Denmark shortly after his 18th birthday.

Two seasons, 14 goals and 57 appearances later, he transferred to Ajax where he won two league titles and a Dutch Cup under Eric ten Hag, before following the Dutchman, who left to manage Manchester United after the 2021-22 campaign, to England last summer.

“On a larger scale, (my journey) is about motivating and showing the people of my country that there’s an opportunity to make it to this level,” says Kudus. “I want to inspire the next generation and the young kids coming up, as I know a lot look up to me. I have to set the right example for them and pave the way, and make it even smoother.”


Kudus hopes to distribute more boots back in Ghana (Skechers)

One of the players Kudus looked up to on his footballing journey was his compatriot Christian Atsu, who died in the Turkey earthquake tragedy last year at age 31.

The winger played for Newcastle and Everton in the Premier League and also had a spell at Chelsea. He won more than 60 international caps. “He was one of those top talents in the league and one of the guys who also played for the national team at that time. I liked his style of play as well — dribbling and trying to create stuff in the game and do something different. It grabbed my attention,” says Kudus.

“Aside from that, the charity work he did back in Ghana and supporting football back at home is what I look up to. Playing the game, but also having an impact on where you’re from. He had a great impact on me and so many other kids coming up, and will live forever. He was an inspiration and has definitely left a legacy in Ghana that will always be talked about. It’s so sad he passed away. May his soul rest in peace.”


A mural of Atsu by the field where he played in his youth in Tema, Ghana (Kwame Adzaho-Amenortor/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Kudus is seen as Ghana’s big hope to take them back to the levels of the past, where they won the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) four times, though the most recent was in 1982 and they last made the final in 2015, and got to the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Cup, narrowly and controversially losing to Uruguay in a penalty shootout.

At the 2022 World Cup, Kudus provided the bright spark with two goals in a 3-2 win against South Korea, but they lost the other two matches to Portugal and old foes Uruguay so failed to make it out of their group — as happened in their previous appearance at the finals in 2014, where they took one point of the nine available.

In January, he scored twice in a tournament match again, in a 2-2 draw with Egypt, but Ghana did not progress to the knockout phase for a second successive AFCON.

“There has been a level set high, and our aim is to get Ghana back there,” Kudus says. “The past few years has been ups and downs so we have to get back to competing in the AFCON and trying to win it. We have so much talent but we need to connect the puzzle and then we will have a bright future.”

(Top photos: Skechers, Getty Images)



Read the full article here

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here