Jeremy Doku (L) and his dad
Long before Jeremy Doku became one of Europe’s most dazzling wingers, he was pulling cheeky moves at Anderlecht, not just with the ball, but apparently to stay on the field.
As his father, David Doku, recently revealed, a youthful mix-up helped the then-teen avoid a suspension after picking up a yellow card in a match against Mechelen.
Doku had just been booked, and with a vital Bruges tie looming, one foul away from sitting out a playoff-impacting game.
Teammates quickly concocted a clever ruse: after Doku’s infringement, they nudged another player directly into the referee’s vision, so the official mistakenly booked that player instead.
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David explained how teammate ingenuity intervened.
“So there was a foul, and the foul was on Jeremy. They didn’t want Jeremy to get a yellow. They want him to be in the next game, so they pushed somebody to the ref and said, ‘this is the one who fouled’, so they gave him a yellow, and Jeremy escaped from that yellow card,” he recalled.
That quick-thinking saving act wasn’t just a moment of mischief, it underscored how highly his teammates valued him. They recognised early that keeping Jeremy on the pitch was worth bending the rules a little.
Doku joined Anderlecht’s prestigious youth academy at around age 9. He rose swiftly through the ranks and made his first-team debut in May 2018, just shy of his 17th birthday.
The Belgian prodigy soon earned a promotion to Rennes in 2020, where his blistering dribbles and acceleration grabbed attention across Europe.
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In 2023, Manchester City swooped in for Doku, securing one of the most exciting talents to watch in today’s Premier League.
FKA/MA
Meanwhile, watch as Derrick Maccaire opens up on challenges in kickboxing, MMA in Ghana
