Sunday, September 18, 2022 at 11:34 am• Guy Habets

Mohammed Kudus is talking to the NOS explained why he never seems happy after a goal. The Ghanaian midfielder annex attacker of Ajax has recently scored more often and several people have noticed that he never smiles while cheering. Kudus has a reason for that, as it turns out.

Last Tuesday, Kudus captured the attention of all of football-loving Europe by scoring against Liverpool at Anfield. After a sharp turn with a hard shot with the left, the Ghanaian found the short top corner in a phenomenal way and showed a lot during the celebration of his goal, except joy. That was not for nothing. “For me, it’s much more than just cheering for a goal,” he explains. “For me, it’s about all aspects of life at a time like this. Stick to what you believe in. That’s why I do it that way.”

Kudus has a special ‘celebration’, where he keeps both arms crossed and clenches his fists. This move comes from the Marvel superhero movie Black Panther and is the Ghanaian’s ‘Wakanda Forever Salute’. “Why I do that is because you get a lot of opinions and things like that. This is how you stop all that negativity that comes your way. It is a kind of protection, a sword that stops everything. That’s how I see it.”

The joy of his goals can be seen at the Right to Dream Academy in Accra, the capital of Ghana, where the midfielder once also started his football training. The children who are now being trained there exploded with joy when Kudus scored against Liverpool, as can be seen on images, and that provides inspiration to the Ajax player. “You can see how happy they are already just because of how I play. It inspires me to work even harder and tell them that they can do even better than me in the future.”