Feature: Abeyie's transformation from Arsenal exile to Malaga missile

Published on: 15 October 2010

Quincy is back on prime time this weekend. The former Arsenal prodigy eventually let go by Arsene Wenger has clawed his way back via five loan moves, two Russian winters and a wages crisis at Portsmouth to become one of the stars of the early season in Spain, playing for the first La Liga club to be owned by a billionaire Sheik.

Malaga face Real Madrid on Saturday night and as he prepared for the game Quincy (Owusu Abeyie) recalled a phone conversation with Wenger – long after the Arsenal manager had sold him to Spartak Moscow – that convinced him he could still fulfill his enormous potential.

'I called him because I had a long off-season in Moscow and I was a bit low,' said Quincy. 'He told me that he still believes in me and that some good players have a good career from early on but that I would probably be one of those that starts off late.'

That forecast is looking good this season – after six games no team is currently outscoring Malaga and the ever-present Quincy, now 24, has netted two of those 12 goals.

They led 5-0 after 40 minutes in one match with him scoring and providing the assist for the fourth – crossing after a lightening sprint from inside his own half that reminded everyone why he once shared headlines with Leo Messi at the 2005 World Youth Championships.

'I think about those days all the time and watch Arsenal's games to see how they are doing,' said Quincy, who still has a home in North London. 'I was 16 when I arrived at Arsenal and I left just after turning 20. I was just not professional enough at the time. I don't think I was ready mentally.

'It was great to train with players like Thierry Henry and I learned so much from Dennis Bergkamp – he was amazing always giving everything in training.'

Quincy could not match that discipline and he recognizes it now. 'I was that player who couldn't be bothered in training, turning up late, arguing with the coaches. I never did anything crazy but that reputation stays with you.'

The long list of clubs doesn't help his image either – a by-product of being stuck in Russia and taking every loan escape route available. With better guidance he might have waited for a more sensible way out.

'I had an agent at the time who was kind of pushing me for the move,' he remembers. 'There was a lot of money involved. It was good financially for me as well, but career wise it was not so good.'

The last of those loan moves was to potless Pompey teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and FA Cup glory.

'I was not happy at all, sat on a plane on my way back from pre-season with Spartak Moscow when my (new) agent called me and said "you have to come to Portsmouth for a medical". And that just made my day.'

Though he was gone again by the time the club made it to the final he played an important part in the Cup run scoring in the fifth-round victory over Southampton.

'The players always got paid – sometimes it just got delayed two or three days,' he remembers.

'When you got there you actually couldn't believe that it was a Premier league club. You thought about the players that the club had sold in the last couple of years – (Sulley) Muntari, (Glen) Jonhson and (Lassana) Diarra and then you got to the training ground and you just thought "something is not right here". But I enjoyed playing for them.'

And that enjoyment is back at Malaga where, in coach Manuel Jesualdo Ferreira's 4-3-3 gung-ho attacking team (they've let in as many as they've scored), Quincy is largely freed from tracking-back duties.

Source: Pete Jenson, Daily Mail

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