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When a young player steps up into the first team at any club, it might take the senior players a bit of time to trust them, to give them the ball in pressure situations, to see them as a player who can contribute right now at the top level. But when 16-year-old Lily Yohannes was integrated into Ajax's first team at the start of this season, there was little hesitation from the group. They knew almost straight away that she was a special talent.
That's how Ajax captain Sherida Spitse remembers it, anyway. "You feel directly, 'Okay, I can play her the ball. That is a player that can do something with the ball, to create something for us'," she told GOAL this month when asked about Yohannes' early days with the team. "She's a good player, she's a nice person and she can learn a lot of things, but she's doing a really good job and I'm happy that she is in my team and our team."
Yohannes will be glad that she is in Spitse's team, too, because the way she speaks about the teenager indicates a true captain. "She just needs to play," the 33-year-old, and only player over 30 in Ajax's team, added. "She is 16 and she is good because she is just playing and doesn't think so much about everything around her. That is the responsibility for other people around her, like for me, the other captains, the team. She just needs to do what she can.
"Of course, you cannot lose the ball too easy, too often, and we say that to her. But in the end, she needs to focus on her football. She is just only 16 years old so just let her play football. That is the most important thing, I think, and the rest is our responsibility."
With a leader like that around her every day, Yohannes might be in the best place possible for her development. Her first senior season certainly indicates as much, with her thriving in the Eredivisie and the UEFA Women's Champions League.
Now, she is set to show that talent on the international stage after winning her first United States women's national team call-up ahead of the SheBelieves Cup, making her the youngest player to be included in a full camp since Sophia Smith back in 2017.
You can watch the UEFA Women’s Champions League for free on DAZN, wherever you are in the world!