Delivering a speech and taking pictures with Crew coach and sporting director Gregg Berhalter took a few minutes, and still, Edward Opoku admitted, he was shaking.
Crew SC selected the forward with the 32nd overall pick in Friday’s SuperDraft at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and in doing so made his transition from Virginia to MLS easier than it could have been.
Opoku will begin Crew SC’s preseason training later this month with some familiarity, both with the team’s playing style and the players on its roster.
The 5-feet-7, 140-pound forward spent a small chunk of time training with Crew SC over the summer and knows the Crew’s Ghanaians well.
He grew up watching Harrison Afful and Jonathan Mensah play on the national team, is friendly with second-year center back Lalas Abubakar and has a deeper bond with midfielder Mohammed Abu from their shared time at the Right to Dream Academy in Ghana.
''When I went to Right to Dream first, I was very young, about 10 and he was, I believe, 15,'' Opoku said.
''He was a role model to me and he helped my family a lot.''
Abu helped Opoku again over the summer, giving him a place to stay while he trained with the Crew.
As Opoku picked up a few things from winger Kekuta Manneh, now with Liga MX club Pachuca, he hoped he might be able to return to the Crew via the draft after the 2017 season.
On Friday, he got his wish.
“I can’t believe what just happened,” Opoku said. “I still think it’s a dream (coming) from a dirt road in Ghana. I give all the thanks for Right to Dream and all they’ve done for me and they continue to support me throughout this process and it’s a huge honor to be here.”
Opoku said he tried to make eye contact a few times during the draft with Berhalter, a coach with whom he said he has a good relationship.
“He’s been such an important part of me over the last couple days and he’s talked to me constantly, telling me things I need to work on to get better and as a player, to have that relationship with a coach is amazing and I feel really comfortable with him,” Opoku said.
''He trusts me, he believes in me and I’ll do everything I can to try to give back to the community as much as I can to the team as well.”