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The Tottenham defender was full of praise of a young academy product who has stepped into the first team set-up this season
Kevin Danso believes Jun'ai Byfield is a "very, very, very, very good player" after the 17-year-old made his Tottenham debut in the Champions League win against Borussia Dortmund.
Spurs recorded a much-needed victory under Thomas Frank with goals from Cristian Romero and Dominic Solanke sandwiching a red card for Dortmund's Daniel Svensson. There was a proud moment for the north London club and its academy in the 62nd minute when centre-back Byfield stepped on to the pitch to make his bow.
With Tottenham's availability issues - 13 players could not feature against the Bundesliga side - Byfield had to come on at right-back with Pedro Porro moving into an unfamiliar midfield role. Byfield was calm and assured in his half an hour on the pitch and it was no less than Danso and his senior team-mates expected.
"He's been amazing. He trains with us a lot and he's a very, very, very, very good player," said the 27-year-old centre-back. "Everybody was happy for him today to make his debut and he did an amazing job."
Frank also had praise for the teenager, telling football.london that the young defender did not look out of place in the Champions League environment.
"No, no, not at all. Jun'ai has impressed throughout the training. The players trust him. Clearly they rate him highly. I rate him highly," said the Dane.
"One thing is to get your debut for Tottenham, the last five minutes, 4-0 up and everything is smooth. Another thing is to get your debut in the Champions League, a big night against Dortmund and we needed to win the game. He just came in, composed, calm, on top of this. Wow. I hope his parents are very proud. They should be."
Danso also had praise to dish out to his Tottenham captain Cristian Romero as well as a new addition to the coaching staff.
"He's a person who leads by example on the pitch in everything he does, he gives 100 per cent," the Austria international said of the Spurs skipper. "He's a leader on and off the pitch and he showed that exactly again today by putting us in front [against Dortmund]."
The new member of the staff is John Heitinga with Frank bringing in the former Netherlands centre-back as one of his assistant coaches to replace Matt Wells, after the latter accepted his first managerial role at Colorado Rapids in MLS. Heitinga has taken on Wells' defensive work and Danso has been impressed by the new man.
"He's been a great addition," he said. "He's got great experience as everyone knows and he's keeping us onboard, it's exactly what we need."
Danso believes that the positive nature of Tottenham's performance against Dortmund and the victory itself show the team are firmly behind the under-pressure Frank.
"Definitely, we are all together. It's down to us at the end of the day, we go on the pitch and every game we try to give our best," said the defender. "It's also about when we're not playing well we need to try and stay in the game and get the results that we need.
"That's the next step for us, even when it's not going well, we need to try and win games and get results."
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