Bafana Bafana international Gift Links was the talk of town in Denmark after a Man of the Match display and a winning goal in Aarhus reaching the domestic cup final.
Aarhus booked their spot in the final of the Danish Cup after a narrow 1-0 win over Nordsjaelland in the semi-final second-leg courtesy of an added time winner by Links on Thursday evening, as they won 4-2 on aggregate, with the South African walking away with the official Man of the Match award.
KickOff caught up with Paul Mitchell, Director of Siyavuma Sports Group, to hear his thoughts on Links' performance.
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"Fantastic performance by Gift last night, started off on the right wing, finishing off on the left wing-back and what a fantastic goal to put Aarhus through to the Danish Cup final, as soon as he won the interception I knew he would finish it off, he’s super quick and what a lovely finish” Mitchell reacted when contacted by KickOff.
"He's been playing well consistently at Aarhus and long may it continue it’s a great club and he loves it there it’s a fantastic club!"
AGF will face Silkeborg in the final, where the winner will enter the UEFA Europa League qualifiers in the third round.
"European club competition is great for any player to be involved in, he has qualified for the Europa before, in his time at AGF, he has qualified twice for Europa," Mitchell continued and gave a summary of Links' career that is blossoming in one of Europe's top leagues.
"He has been an ever consistent member of the team over the last four seasons, he's playing in multiple positions. Over the last 15 months he has played predominantly at the left wing-back, which we all know it's not his main position he can play left wing, right wing, left wing-back, number ten, number eight, if you can play various positions comfortably, it shows you a very good footballer," he said.
"There's no doubt in Gift’s ability, that’s why he went to Europe, for good money in terms of a transfer fee, four years ago”.
"Career wise, we've always been on the right path ever since he was 17 years old. If you remember we moved him to Egypt when he was 18, which was a strategic move at the time, to get him out of South Africa, to get him toughened up, which it did and he came back when John Comitis saw his ability and took our advise to sign him, he did very well at Cape Town City and obviously got himself a good move to Europe, Benni (McCarthy) developed him very well and I know Benni would have been thrilled with the goal last night as being direct in his play, was what Benni constantly coached Gifty to do."
Links' continued exclusion in the Bafana squad, at only 25, playing at a league considerably higher than the PSL, is one of the glaring omissions by head coach Hugo Broos but Mitchell suggested that the former Cape Town City winger will keep on working hard, as he cannot control national team selections.
"Look, at the end of the day whoever picks the Bafana squad picks the squad, all Gift will keep doing is working hard and keep pushing," Mitchell said.
"At the end of the day when you're playing at that level in Europe, it's a little bit of a mystery how you're not included in the squad. But like I say, his focus is on AGF, a fantastic football club and community, his focus is on winning the cup and finishing as high in the league as AGF can” Mitchell added.
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