\n<\/p>\n
Speaking for the first time as a Sporting player, the young Englishman, often likened in appearance to Jack Grealish, made clear how much the move meant to him.<\/span><\/p>\n “Fascinated,” he said. “Representing Sporting means a lot to the people of this city. And I’m ready to give my all wearing this shirt. I’m feeling fantastic. It’s a city I’ve been exploring over the last few days and I’m looking to settle in with my team-mates and the coach. I’m absolutely ready to start.”<\/span><\/p>\n The mood around the smiling teenager is, for now, entirely positive. <\/span><\/p>\n “I know Sporting develop great players, players who can express themselves, and I feel everything is going to be perfect. There’s always room to improve, and I hope that playing in front of our fans every week will help me develop. I can’t wait for those moments,” he added.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Derry also explained what drew him specifically to Sporting: “I decided to join Sporting to try to bring trophies to the club. I know that’s the main objective and it’s what I want to do.”<\/span><\/p>\n Asked to describe himself as a player, Derry promised supporters an unpredictable attacker built around creativity, pace and an eye for goal. <\/span><\/p>\n “I like to excite the fans, to express myself and to score goals,” he summarised. Despite his confidence in his own ability, he acknowledged there is always room to grow, and believes the step up in competition can accelerate his progress. <\/span><\/p>\n “There’s always room to improve. I hope playing in front of these fans helps me develop week after week. I can’t wait,” he added.<\/span><\/p>\n Learning of Sporting’s interest brought “great excitement,” he revealed, and he did not hesitate to accept the invitation to join the green and whites. <\/span><\/p>\n “When I think of Sporting, I think of players who excite the fans and of young players. Coming here was a very easy decision,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n The winger admitted he is already counting down the days to play at the Est\u00e1dio Jos\u00e9 Alvalade, having heard plenty about the atmosphere that awaits him there. <\/span><\/p>\n “I can’t wait. I’ve already heard incredible things and it will certainly be a surreal feeling when I step onto the pitch for the first time,” he said. The move represents Derry’s first experience outside English football, though he is embracing the challenge with enthusiasm, revealing that learning the language will be a priority to help him settle in quickly. <\/span><\/p>\n “I’m excited. I’ve already been told I’ll be having Portuguese lessons so I can communicate as well as possible with the fans and my team-mates,” he said, laughing, before attempting his first sentence in the language without hesitation: “I am very happy to be here.”<\/span><\/p>\n He closed with a message for Sporting’s supporters. <\/span><\/p>\n “I can’t wait to get on the pitch and see you all,” he concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Speaking for the first time as a Sporting player, the young Englishman, often likened in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}