Last week was an important one in the life of Daniel Kanu who scored his first league goal against Bristol Rovers on Tuesday, netted again against Port Vale on Saturday and secured and got his A-Level results back.
Now, the 18-year-old striker is focused on continuing his development.
Talking to CharltonTV, he said: “Starting off with the goal against Bristol Rovers, it’s something I’m really proud of because it was my first league goal and I’ve been working really hard towards that for some time now. I had opportunities last year to get it, but I’m glad I’m finally off the mark and then obviously I got another one against Port Vale, probably one of the best goals I’ve ever scored. If you asked me to do it again I don’t think I’d be able to do it.
“I got my results back as well and got some really good results both in A-Level and BTEC as well so I’m really proud of that. It would have topped it off if we got wins in both of those games but all that does is make me more hungry to score goals and help the team do better."
The prolific attacker has been in the Addicks’ academy set-up since U11 level and enjoyed a largely successful period within the youth ranks before making the step up into the men's first-team. He highlighted the significant impact his fellow academy prospects have had in shaping him into the player he is today.
“It makes it a lot better having Karoy [Anderson], Nathan [Asiimwe] and Zach [Mitchell] around me. It brings a certain level of comfort having players around you that you have played with for so long, it gives you confidence. You see them doing well and it gives you confidence in yourself which I think is really helpful because we’ve got each other's backs and have had each other's backs since we were 10 years old. It’s been a really enjoyable experience playing on the big stages alongside them - it’s something that you dream of.
“The physical side in terms of strength is something I struggled with last year. It’s something I have really worked hard to improve on. When you get to train against really good and big centre halves like Lloyd [Jone], [Michael] Hector, Nessy [Lucas Ness], Deji [Elerewe], [Zach] Mitchell, Terell [Thomas] and all those guys on a regular basis it really helps. You learn a lot about yourself and what you can do to have an effect on the game. That is what I have been learning over the last year or so - how can I have an effect on the game. I’ve tried to bulk up a little bit and tried to not lose some pace as well. There have been some good learning experiences over the last year. I think I’m starting to see all the fruits of the things I have been learning."
Kanu also spoke highly of Charlton’s new number nine Alfie May, admitting his arrival has been extremely beneficial for his development so far.
“Playing alongside Alfie May has been something I’ve really enjoyed,” he explained. “He’s made me feel so comfortable in the role as well. With his level of experience, he’s really helped me to get used to the pace of the game and also different things. He’s the type of striker that I like to be - a striker in and around the area, shooting inside the 18-yard box and also running in behind. It’s been really good learning off of him over the last few weeks and obviously on Saturday. I’ve built a really good relationship with him over the last couple weeks as well. He lives in the same area as me so he picks me up on the way to training and we have some nice conversations. I think the relationship is shown on the pitch.
“I want to continue working hard, not just with Alf but with the rest of the players as well. As long as we keep it up and keep training hard, once we get a good result I really believe we can kick on and it will really kickstart our season."
(Article by Alex Forrest)
