AFRICANS IN EUROPE: Thomas Partey

Ghana’s new generation of talent aiming at World Cup qualification will be heavily boosted by a fit Thomas Partey, who is readying for a new season at Arsenal.

It will be his fifth Premier League campaign and one where he will be hoping to get more regular game time, having seen the last season blighted by injury.

He was troubled by a hamstring injury that also caused him to miss the Africa Cup of Nations finals in the Ivory Coast, where Ghana’s Black Stars flopped horribly.

Arsenal will go into new campaign full of ambition, having pushed Manchester City all the way in the last Premier League race and now returning to the Champions League for the first time since the 2016-17 season.

There was some conjecture last month that Partey might be on his way out at the Gunners and a new key defensive midfielder brought but Amadou Onana went to Aston Villa instead.

Those rumours will likely spur Partey on even more to prove his importance to the Arsenal cause and show that he still has it at the age of 31.

He remains one of the top African players in Europe, with more than a decade now in Spain and England.

Partey was given his chance to move to Spain when an agent came to watch his club Tema Youth, actually with an eye on someone else.

"There was someone better than me, a forward who scored all the goals, but he did not want to go to Europe rather wanted to play for a team in Ghana," explained Partey.

"So my turn came and when the agent asked me what I wanted, I said ‘to triumph in football’ so as to help my family. He went to speak to my father to ask if he could take me to Spain for a trial, but never said which team.

"I went with the agent who did all my papers. I had nothing to do, I just trained, ate and slept until the day arrived when I had to travel, which I did not know when it would be or what time.

"I got into a car, they took me to the capital, they gave me my passport and said: 'today you travel.' My dad wasn't at home, nobody from my family knew anything, nor that I was going that day because if they were told then it would cause a lot of problems.

"I travelled to Spain and it was months before anyone realised that I wasn't in Ghana.

Partey went on to say that his parents accepted his decision when they found out.

"My father always was okay with my decisions because as he did not have any help, it cost him a lot and he said nothing," he said.

"My agent told me this but my father never wanted to say anything because he knew that I would not accept it," continued Partey.

"He made a big effort and he sold things in order to get my papers and to buy me boots. He had helped me since I was small as without boots you could not play. He also helped a lot the team from my neighbourhood and I remember we brought food for them."

Atletico Madrid was his destination and Partey did not take long to make a strong impression.

It was 2012, he was still in his teens and Atletico gave him a full season in their reserves before sending him out on loan to Mallorca and Almeria.

That was when Arsenal began scouting Partey. He moved eventually in 2020, earning some 200 000 pounds a week after a relatively modest contract at Atlético where he never quite felt fully valued.