Last Sunday, 14 May 2023, was a special day in the life of Samson Baidoo. The Austrian youth international with Ghanaian roots started for our Red Bulls for the first time in the big match against LASK - and had a baptism of fire. A mistake in the opening minutes provided a worrying moment, but nothing resulted from that, and the 19-year-old got increasingly into the game!
Our young defender played more balls to his team-mates than any other player - with a significant amount of these in the final third. He also cleared the ball on numerous occasions and posted solid tackling figures.
Salzburg insiders have been talking about the boy from Graz for a while. The central defender moved to Salzburg in winter 2018, playing through all the age groups at our co-operation partner, the Red Bull Academy, from the U15 upwards with the likes of Dijon Kameri, and gained playing time for FC Liefering over the past two seasons.
He has been knocking on the door of the first team since 2021, when as a 16-year-old he trained for our Red Bulls under Jesse Marsch for the first time and saw some friendly match action.
In April 2022, Sammy signed his first professional contract with us, which dates to 2027. We can therefore look forward to so much from him over the next few years!
That Samson – who is inspired by the likes of Dayot Upamecano and Antonio Rüdiger - has a real battling and winning mentality, has been shown in impressive style for our Young Bulls. In our journey to the 2021/22 UEFA Youth League final, he was one of the pillars of the side, also scoring the last-gasp winner against Wolfsburg in the group stage.
Last autumn we followed three youngsters for the whole day with a camera in our Day In The Life format - Samson Baidoo, Justin Omoregie and Dijon Kameri. In the following video, you can get to know the boys better:
Gallery: Best of Samson Baidoo
