Jesurun Rak-Sakyi: 18-year-old winger makes first appearance in Crystal Palace squad during Chelsea defeat

Jesurun Rak-SakyiGhanaian teenager Jesurun Rak-Sakyi was an unused substitute for Crystal Palace in their 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Chelsea in the English Premier League on Saturday, 11 April 2021.The 18-year-old was making his appearance in the match day squad for the Eagles since joining them in 2019.Rak-Sakyi worked his way to being a regular for the Under-18s in 2020/21 season, during which time he began to earn minutes with the Under-23s for his performances.The winger has scored one goal in three appearances for the clubs U23 side.Hodgson has been impressed by the way the teenager has coped when called up to first-team duty.”He’s dealt with it very well, I must say. For such a young man he has shown a remarkable maturity, the Palace boss said.”He has come into a group of senior players who he has probably only watched from the terraces before, but you wouldnt notice that because his performances in the training sessions where he has really taken the responsibility that he is capable of taking.”Everyone has taken to him and is appreciative of him and what he can do, so its nice that we have been able to have him with us in a situation where a vacancy has occurred because we have had quite enough senior players out of the squad to not be able to fill out our 20-man quota.”I am very pleased with him, Im very pleased for him, we believe at Crystal Palace that he has a big future and that he will get better and better.”He has certainly started in the right way because being thrown into first-team training we still had eight or nine of our first-teamers still with us last week. For him to come in and make the impression that he’s made and to get the senior players around him to appreciate his talents, thats no mean achievement.”