Cody Gakpo has offered brilliant insight into his relationship with his father and why he will be training in his garden even after playing for Liverpool only hours before.
Gakpo is a man in form of late, scoring five goals and notching two assists across his last seven appearances in all competitions.
He has now made the left wing position his under Arne Slot after starting the season on the bench, which Gakpo credits as the “biggest thing” the head coach “did for my game.”
Though, in a brilliant article for The Players Tribune, it is his father who has clearly moulded Gakpo into the player he is today with his tireless efforts to see his son get better every day.
The Dutchman explains how his father has forced him into the garden for a session after a mistake or poor performance, even taking on the role of Mo Salah after a game last season.
Gakpo wrote: “Dad is a character. He’s … well, he does things his way. I remember I came home from a match last season, and I didn’t have a great performance. Not bad, just not great.
“It was one of those cold, rainy Liverpool days, and all I wanted to do when I got home was chill. But my dad wasn’t having it. Before I even got my shoes off, he said, ‘Son. Outside’.
“I said, ‘Huh?’
“He said, ‘In the garden. Let’s go’.
“So I grabbed a ball, and we went out into the garden. It was already dark, and it was still raining.
“Any error I made, we repeated the exact situation, just like how we used to practice when I was a kid. He said, ‘OK, I’ll be Salah’.
“And he ran over to the right wing, and recreated the same scenario from the game. ‘OK, let’s do it right this time’.
“I am not being funny! This is real. He does this all the time. I’ll come home after a Champions League game, and Dad will be waiting.
‘Ah, you have some time for me today?’ I say, ‘Yes, yes, come’.
“And then we go to my garden and practice some mistake I made 10, 20 times, until I can do it with my eyes closed.
“He’ll usually ask one of my brothers to come as well to play as the defender. Dad’s almost 60, now, to be fair. So he can’t always be Ruben Dias!”
The pursuit to be perfect never ends!
This brilliant snippet behind-the-scenes is just one of many in Gakpo’s piece in The Players Tribune, which also sees him discuss his move to Liverpool and the transition between Jurgen Klopp and Slot – it is well worth the 10 minutes the No. 18 asks for.
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