Manchester United defender Timothy Fosu-Mensah has revealed that he admired and looked up to current Old Trafford teammate Daley Blind when they were both on different rungs of the youth ladder at Ajax, even asking if he could have Blind's boots on one occasion.
Speaking to the latest edition of Inside United, Fosu-Mensah explained how he watched Blind as a teenager at reserve level in Amsterdam and then again later on after the son of Ajax legend Danny had broken into the first-team following a loan spell at Groningen.
"I can remember watching Daley play for the Ajax second team. At that time I think I was with the Under-14s or Under-15s. And another time I remember him playing for the Under-19s and it was when they had to win to be the champions," Fosu-Mensah explained.
"When I was 14, we would ask the players if we could have their boots and I asked Daley for his. His feet were so small and I had much bigger feet than him at the time! I still took them though.
"Later when I was 15 or 16 a lot of the time I was a ball-boy at the stadium (Amsterdam Arena) so I watched him play many times and close up. I was ball-boy most of the times he played left-back so I was very near to him and I could see he was a good player."
Although right-sided, Fosu-Mensah is similar to Blind in that he can comfortably operate as a full-back, centre-back or in central midfield, and both players actually made the move from Ajax to United within 24 hours of each other in September 2014.
Blind had just impressed at the World Cup with the Netherlands national teamunder the management of Louis van Gaal, while a 16-year-old Fosu-Mensah was considered a top youth prospect to join the United academy.
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