Like most young footballers, Burnley striker Zeki Amdouni had to make plenty of sacrifices to ensure he ended up a professional.
That’s at least according to his father, who has discussed his son with L’Illustre today and insisted he is never lacking faith in his abilities.
Amdouni arrived at Burnley in an €18.6m deal from FC Basel last summer and enjoyed a relatively solid season for the Clarets despite their relegation, bagging five goals and one assist in 34 games in the Premier League.
That’s helped him to further establish himself with the Switzerland national team, for whom he is now a regular and enjoys a superb record of seven goals and one assist in 15 games to date.
The latest of those came in the 4-0 win over Estonia, in which he bagged a goal and an assist to cap an impressive 45-minute appearance.
His father was in attendance to watch that game, as he has been for much of the season, and insists he had no concerns over the Burnley man.
He’s followed his son around for much of this season, finding himself as one of the Burnley faithful as they unsuccessfully tried to avoid relegation back to the Championship.
That doesn’t mean there wasn’t enjoyment to be had, though, with Amdouni senior impressed by English fans in general.
“English fans have no money, but the stadiums are full. Football and beer fanatics,” he admitted.
Travelling for games is not a new experience for the Burnley man or his father, who admits that the forward used to travel regularly early in his career after being rejected by Servette.
“When he was 11 years old, Servette no longer wanted him after a foot operation and an absence of several months,” he explained.
“Even though it was far away, Zeki then chose to go with Meyrin, another good team from the youths. Every morning, he left with his two bags, one for school, the other for football. After classes, he took the tram back and forth alone and rarely returned before 8 p.m.”
The striker now rarely finds himself at home alone in Burnley, with his father and the rest of the family travelling often to be with him.
“His mum commuted all the time. I went there often, my daughter too, without forgetting childhood friends,” he concluded.
