From serial reject to Manchester City, Semenyo’s football journey a story of highs and lows

Rejected by Crystal Palace at 15, Antoine Semenyo already had a body of evidence to support his suspicion that he might have to find a career outside football. Like Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Millwall before them, Palace had concluded that Semenyo was not ready to make the grade. “It wasn’t that I was doing badly, they would just tell me to come back in a couple months when I’d developed my game,” Semenyo told the South China Morning Post. “I was thinking, ‘am I doing something wrong?’. I always went away and did well with my Sunday league team, then I’d have another trial and the same thing would happen.” To borrow from the American musician, Father John Misty, time makes fools of us all. Semenyo capped a fabulous campaign, after joining Manchester City from Bournemouth for £65 million (US$87.5 million) in January, by scoring the only goal against Chelsea in May’s FA Cup final. Last week, his teammate, Josko Gvaridol, told the SCMP, only half-jokingly, that Semenyo was “the best signing in our club’s history”. “I hated playing against him,” Gvardiol added. “He’s unpredictable, good on the ball and strong. He can go left or right, shoot and cross. He has everything, he’s a perfect winger.” On hearing of Gvardiol’s appraisal, Semenyo said: “He’s one of the best defenders in the world, so that’s a great compliment. It gives me all the confidence in the world. “When you move to a top team like Manchester City, you have to be prepared. There are no excuses, everybody wants you to get going from the start. I psyched myself up and I’ve done all right.” After the Palace snub hit hard, Semenyo stopped playing football for one year. “I was always good at basketball in school, so I might have diverted,” he said. “But I just focused on school, then was waiting to see what happened. I guess [without football] I would have just freestyled.” Persuaded to attend open trials at Bisham Abbey, aged 16, a slightly overweight Semenyo overcame “nerves and scepticism” to impress. “I knew I still had all the ability in the world and that once I got in the flow I’d do all right,” he said. Semenyo was taken by Dave Hockaday, the former Leeds United manager, to South Gloucestershire and Stroud College, where the express winger’s performances in the South West Counties League began to set tongues wagging. Bristol City fended off competition to sign him professionally in January 2018, immediately sending the player on loan to sixth-tier Bath City. He would also spend time away at Newport County, in League Two, and with then-League One Sunderland. While time in the lower reaches sometimes shocks players reared in cutting-edge, elite academies, the unspoilt Semenyo “just wanted to play”. “I’d worked so hard to reach that point, and I love football so much, I didn’t care where I went,” said the 26-year-old, who was speaking on the sidelines of Ahmad Tea’s Preparation is Everything event in Kowloon Bay. Accomplished with both feet after encouragement from his dad, Larry, a former midfielder for Okawu United in the Ghana Premier League, to diligently practise, Semenyo had a slow start with Bristol City. In one of his earliest games, against Derby County in April 2019, he was sent off 26 minutes after being introduced as a substitute. “As a footballer, you know it will be tough,” Semenyo said. “There will be injuries, you might not play, managers might not favour you. “It wasn’t the smoothest of journeys, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the journey. You just have to keep going. Mentally, I was very strong. “Mum and dad, my [younger] brother [Jai, who is with Lorient in France], and my friends backed me and told me to believe in myself, and I kept believing.” In his third campaign with Bristol City in 2020-21, “everything just clicked”. “I’d trained well that summer, then, from pre-season, I was on fire,” he said. Hot property 2½ years later, Bournemouth paid around £10.5 million to make Semenyo a Premier League player. Moving midway through a season, in January 2023, was not easy, while it was “quite hard to adjust to the speed and top-quality players”. He also tried to play through multiple injuries, including a fractured shin bone. “My pain threshold is very good. I knew I had an opportunity and I didn’t want to miss out again,” Semenyo said. “Once I signed, I wanted to stay in the league, then maybe move to a higher team. I knew I had that ability.” A Ghanaian international, whose parents moved to London from the African country in the 1990s, Semenyo proved an exceptional purchase for Bournemouth. He scored 32 goals in 110 matches, delivering a consistent stream of influential performances. He was unfazed by his City price tag because “pressure is a privilege” and, although discovering Pep Guardiola would be leaving was “not the best of news”, Semenyo is excited about a new adventure with Enzo Maresca in charge. “Tactically, he’s very similar to Pep, and everyone’s buying into it and enjoying it,” Semenyo said. “Strong and mentally ready”, after a couple of weeks to “unwind, relax and lay my head down” following the World Cup, Semenyo is yet to jot this season’s objectives into the journal he writes. “I know what they’ll be: I scored double figures [11] last year, so how do I beat that?” he said. Semenyo also notes down the “small details” he wants to refine. “Playing in a team that’s ball dominant, I have to be patient and have close touches,” he said. “At Bournemouth, everything was so open. Now it’s compact and tiki-taka football. I have to adjust my game in that sense. Opportunities open up. Here I am in Hong Kong tasting tea.”

From serial reject to Manchester City, Semenyo’s football journey a story of highs and lows

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Antoine Semenyo had been discarded by four of London’s big clubs by the age of 15, but he never gave up. City paid £65 million for him

Antoine Semenyo had been discarded by four of London’s big clubs by the age of 15, but he never gave up. City paid £65 million for him