Former Nottingham Forest youngster Arvin Appiah is beginning to show why he is tipped as “one of the greatest promises of English football”.
That is the view from Spain, after the 19-year-old opened his goalscoring account for Almeria in style at the weekend.
Appiah joined the Spanish second division club last September, in a deal worth about £8m.
Having initially been registered for their reserve team, the Nigel Doughty Academy product has since made the step up to the senior side.
He has made 15 appearances so far and scored his first goal on Saturday to secure a 2-0 victory over Real Zaragoza.
It was a coolly-taken, fine individual effort from the winger - and it seems to have left some observers purring over what he has to offer.
Spanish newspaper Marca say Appiah has “undergone a true transformation” since Jose Maria Gutierrez arrived as manager in November.
They describe how, having beaten Manchester United to the signing of “the young English pearl”, he had “one of his best games” since joining the club against Zaragoza.
Their report adds: “At 19 years old, he is considered one of the greatest promises of English football and has gone through all the lower categories of the English team (Forest).
“It was one of the big bets on (owner) Turki Al-Sheikh’s project. They have a lot of trust placed in him and they hope that he ends up exploding in Almeria.
“The English winger took advantage of the opportunity that Gutiérrez offered him and presented his credentials, leaving some details of his quality.
“He has shown that he is fully integrated into the squad and that he has adapted in time to a category as demanding as the Segunda Division. He is a player to consider for the future.”
Appiah has previously spoken about adapting to the challenge of playing in Spain.
"Championship football is a lot more physical than Spain, you know the demand of games in the Championship is a lot," he has said,
"I feel in Spain it's a lot more tactical, technical. The way we play with Guti, he came from Real Madrid, he's obviously a technical player and he wants us to play out from the back, pass move...I've learnt so many things from him.
"At first I wasn't playing and I was getting used to the lifestyle, the culture and stuff but...when I started to play they were very welcoming, they really noticed what I brought to the team.”
