Ansah Praised By His Dad After Under 16's Goal

After bagging his 17th goal of the season for Arsenal’s Under 16’s on Saturday, striker Zak Ansah is building a growing reputation as one of the most exciting young talents in England at the moment.

His fantastic goal scoring record for Steve Gatting’s boys combined with a exiguous number appearances for the double winning Under 18’s has earned him a place in the England squad where he has one goal from two games. The name ‘Ansah’ will be a familiar one for regular followers of English football after Zak’s Dad, Andy, had a playing career where he notably made 157 appearances for Southend United.

Andy has since gone on to acting in the fictional football drama ‘Dream Team’ where he was player coach for Harchester United. He’s also appeared in the ‘Goal’ films and is currently working with Wayne Rooney on a programme for Sky called ‘Wayne Rooney’s Street Striker’. Ansah senior takes the role of judge in the show which tests the talents and skills of potential forwards from around the country. On Friday Andy was invited on the Hawksbee & Jacobs show on talkSPORT radio to promote the programme where he was also asked about his promising young son.

After briefly talking about Rooney’s son, Kai, Paul Hawksbee asked about his son and his England call-up.

“Thats right, young Zak Ansah. He played against Northern Ireland and I was over at Chester in the week.”

Andy was then asked about his first hand experience of the Arsenal youth system and whether it is really as good as the club and media portray. To which the unequivocal answer was:

“Arsenal have a fantastic setup. Just to have the education first and fore most is important. Whether they go on and play for them, thats great if they do, but the education stands them in good stead if they want to go on and be footballers.”

Zak is yet to find out if he’ll be included in the England Under 16’s squad for the final Victory Shield clash with Scotland, but his rapid goal scoring rate should see him claim a place in the squad as they, minus any major upsets, retain the Shield.

Article By – J.Sanderson