Zambia striker Patson Daka’s is not getting carried away despite an incredible season with his Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg.
The 22-year-old enjoyed his most prolific season so far to finish the league’s top- scorer as his team won the Austrian League and Cup double and he earned the player of the season award.
He scored 27 goals in 28 matches as RB Salzburg won their eighth league title in a row and added five more in six games to clinch his and the club’s third straight Austrian Cup.
“I thank God for a rewarding season, but there’s always room to improve and keep working hard,” the league’s top scorer said.
“It’s been a memorable and tough campaign. We couldn’t have done it all without a dedicated team and hard working group on and off the pitch.”
His goals mean Daka is the third African player to claim the top scorer award in Austria after Senegal’s Souleyman Sané achieved the feat whilst playing for Tirol Innsbruck in the 1994-95 season and Nigeria’s Olanrewaju Kayode for Austria Vienna in the 2016-17 campaign.
“I am really proud of this and would like to thank all the presidents, club managers and coaches for the award,” added the Zambian, who also follows in the footsteps of Guinea’s Naby Keita by winning the player of the season prize in 2016.
“My biggest thank you goes to my team-mates and coaching staff, however, who I would like to dedicate this honour to.”
Daka has been on the books of Salzburg since 2017 after initially moving to Austria on loan from Zambia’s Kafue Celtic to Salzburg’s second-tier feeder team Liefering.
His rise to the top began in Zambia when he joined an African football programme called Airtel Rising Stars when he was a teenage which propelled him to play in the domestic top-flight soon after.
It was at the 2015 Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations tournament that former Mali and Sevilla striker Freddie Kanoute spotted him playing for Zambia.
Two years later, he impressed on home soil and named the Most Valuable Player as Zambia won the 2017 African under-20 event to earn himself the Confederation of African Football’s Young Player of the Year in 2017.
Star man
A 2017 European Youth League winner, he has seven goals in 25 international appearances for the 2012 African Champions, but it is his impressive form in Austria that is making headlines across the world.
More so back home in Zambia where Daka and fellow Zambian Enock Mwepu continue to impress at RB Salzburg, earning the club a new legion of Zambian fans.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re playing against Manchester United or Real Madrid – everybody’s supporting Red Bull because of us,” he explained
“Right now it’s really crazy in Zambia. Most of the time people ask, ‘how can we get the jerseys?’
The English Premier League remains popular in Zambia and Daka says it is a league he would like to compete in at some stage in his career, “when the time is right.”
“I’ve been a Liverpool fan and also a Barcelona fan in Spain,” he admitted.
DID YOU KNOW? RB Salzburg’s quartet of Zambia’s Patson Daka, compatriot Enock Mwepu, Cameroon’s Jerome Onguene and Mali’s Diadie Samassekou are the continent’s most successful players in the Austrian Bundesliga with four titles each.
