Dhe returns home, where he finds himself in quarantine after returning from Florida where the CONCACAF Champions League game was being played in which head coach Thierry Henry used him in the final seven minutes, Assi could finally celebrate the moment with his mother, an inspiration to him.
“My mother is a fighter, she is a hard worker. I look at her and she inspires me. All I can do is work as much as she does, ”he said at the outset, Monday, in a telephone interview with The sun.
It was only after the Impact’s 1-0 victory over the Olimpia de Tegucigalpa (Honduras) on Tuesday that Assi learned that he had just accomplished something new.
“I was warming up on the lines when the coach said, come on, come on. I looked left, right and behind me, I didn’t think he was talking to me. It was a great pride to make my debut with the Impact, I hope that it will serve as an inspiration for other young people to do the same, we see that it is possible ”, underlined the number 35, at the same time delighted and humble.
Earlier this month, Jean-Aniel Assi was one of four players from the Impact Academy’s Under-23 group to sign their first professional contract. He had been there since 2017, when he was recruited at the age of 13 after two great seasons in U12 and U13 with the Royal de Beauport.
“The Impact has helped me a lot to continue my development, but if I didn’t believe in myself, I wouldn’t have been signaled. If I was called upon, it is also because I put effort into it. All that matters to me is working and still working. I’m not the type to stay at home, I have to kick the ball as often as possible. ”
He’s been doing it almost every day since a sixth grade teacher at Quatre-Vents Elementary School in Beauport saw him in his backyard when he was playing with his son. Patrick Beaulieu then referred him to the local association, where Jean-Aniel found himself in a team with tight bonds and managed with skill by Jean-Patrice Tavea.
“The Royal de Beauport was like family to me. My mother did not have a car, the other parents came to pick me up, they took care of me. There was a great camaraderie, it was reassuring for my mother to see me so well surrounded, ”he admitted.
Originally from the Ivory Coast, Jean-Aniel Assi and his mother immigrated to Canada when he was nine years old. They lived a first year in Montreal before moving to Quebec. Since he has been in the bosom of the Impact, he has lived with one of his uncles in Montreal.
“When I went to the Academy in 2017, my mother was worried, and I admit, I was a little too, because Montreal is a big city. The training center was 1h15 from my uncle’s house, but everything went well. She knew that was what I wanted to do. ”
A few years later, he is professional. And this first tenure is not the last.
“I’m only at the start of my career, I’m not looking too far ahead and I’m going one step at a time. Yes, I hope to show who Jean-Aniel Assi is and help the Impact win trophies, but I prefer to set myself short-term goals. The next one will be to make the first team in 2021. “
His speech is in line with what Samir Ghrib said about him after seeing him play a first game with the Impact.
“I found Thierry Henry very generous to have used it. We are very proud of Jean-Aniel, obviously, but above all he has an exemplary attitude. He calls me Monsieur Samir, and every time he comes back to Beauport, he doesn’t forget to come and say hello to his friends, his teammates, his coaches. Jean-Aniel is a young man with a head on his shoulders who remains humble and modest in the face of what is happening to him, ”noted the technical director of the Beauport Soccer Association, who found it good to see two players from the region of Quebec in the Impact lineup last week, the other being Anthony Jackson-Hamel.
Fast forward
