Palace youngster on beating Manchester City, Manchester United and Fulham contenders for Player of the Month award
Crystal Palace winger Jesurun Rak-Sakyi said winning the Premier League 2 Player of the Month award was a “great achievement” for himself and the club – and added that the dream is to play alongside fellow academy graduate Tayo Adaramola in the first team.
The 19-year-old beat Fulham’s Luke Harris and Sonny Hilton, Manchester City’s Juan Larios and James McAtee, Southampton’s Luke Pearce and Manchester United’s Shola Shoretire to pick up the award.
England U20 international Rak-Sakyi made his professional debut for the club in the 3-0 loss to Chelsea on the opening day of the season when he replaced Jairo Riedewald in the 76th minute.
Rak-Sakyi has scored 15 goals in 21 games for Paddy McCarthy’s side this season.
“It’s a great achievement for me and also the academy,” Rak-Sakyi told PalaceTV.
“This month, we played really well – we had three tough games, and we were unbeaten in all three of them. I’m just very happy for that.”
Speaking of his reaction when he heard that he won the award, he said: “I was quite surprised, to be honest, because I didn’t think that I would get it.
“But I know that I have been working hard, dedicating myself to the team and every day in training.”
Rak-Sakyi has been training with Patrick Vieira’s first team and, along with his senior debut, was named on the bench in the Premier League draw with Brighton and the FA Cup wins against Millwall and Stoke City.
“It’s kind of even split,” said Rak-Sakyi of his duties between the academy and the first team.
“Sometimes, I will be with the first team from Monday to Thursday, and then when the 23’s have a game, I will probably train with them and have the game as well. It’s quite tough, but I am coping with it well.”
Eighteen-year-old fellow academy starlet Tayo Adaramola made his first start for the club in the 2-1 win against Stoke, which booked Patrick Vieira’s side a place in the FA Cyp quarter-finals.
“It was great to see Tayo make his first – he is a really good friend of mine,” added Rak-Sakyi.
“He’s been working really hard – he deserves it. It just shows that at the academy, we have got a lot of good players coming through, and hopefully, many more to come.”
When asked about the potential of the pair playing alongside each other in the Palace first team in the future, he said: “Yeah, that’s the dream, but we have got a long way for that to happen.
“You never know- we have just got to be on our toes and be ready when we get called upon.”
PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD
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