He was of interest to Liverpool in January but nothing came of it as Nottingham Forest remained dogged in their approach to getting out of the championship last season. Brennan Johnson has risen through the Forest academy ranks to become a first-team star. After initially breaking into the first team in the 2019/20 season he really has blossomed as a fast and dangerous attacker.

Born in Nottingham he started his career at Dunkirk FC in the city. He joined them aged eight. Even then he had clubs interested in him.

The trajectory of Johnson’s rise, first as a Forest regular and now as an exciting attacker in the Wales side has been phenomenal. Roy Keane and Robbie Fowler especially have been glowing in their praise or Johnson. “He has always I pressed me,” said Fowler. “He is still a young kid and there have been a few Premier League clubs after him. He has stayed at the club, gone on loan to Lincoln and what I like about him, as much as he has got pace-wise, he has a directness about him and he is comfortable on the ball and shows composure. He gets into the box and has weighed in with a lot of goals, not only scoring them but assisting them too and he ticks a lot of boxes.” Roy Keane added: “He looks like a footballer, he looks a natural with the ball at his feet. He does not look like he is fighting with the ball and it would be great to see how does in the next couple of years and whether he can kick on.”

His second half display on Thursday, and that beautiful cross for Kieffer Moore to score after a burst of pace the Belgian defence couldn’t deal with was sublime. It’s that ability that will be crucial tonight for Wales if they are to retain League A status in the Nations League. Johnson is the son of former Bury FC, Ipswich Town and Nottingham Forest player David Johnson, someone who is seen at every game that his son plays. David was born in Jamaica and started his football career at Manchester United before moving on to Bury in 1995. It was over a nine year period he made a name for himself at first Ipswich and then Nottingham Forest. He scored 101 goals for both clubs in 279 games. Still only forty six his performances for many are still very fresh in the memory. Jamaica were a strong side and very popular in the nineties as they travelled the world almost Harlem Globetrotters style with players like Ricardo Gardner of Bolton Wanderers, Michael Johnson of Birmingham City, Marcus Gayle, Frank Sinclair, Darren Moore, Darryl Powell, Robbie Earle, Fitzroy Simpson and of course Walter Boyd.

They had an entertaining team and took over from Brasil as many peoples favourites.

David Johnson played his international career forJamaica when the maverick Walter Boyd was at Swansea City. In fact it could be said it was Boyd, who remains today a Jamaican hero in football terms for the Reggae Boyz kept Johnson out of the Jamaican squad. The birth place of Brennan’s father meant he could also play for Jamaica, but he chose England. Turning out for the England under 16 then under 17 sides he switched allegiance to Wales in the 2018/19 season playing for the under 19 and then under 21. His mother is from Wales. Now well in to his Cymru career he looks a permanent fixture for many years to come.

It was last weeks performance which really did alert many people as to his ability on the international stage, especially against such quality opponents. Off the pitch that same maturity was evident in his post match comments. “It was a game of two halves,” said Johnson, whose mesmerising run and cross set up Kieffer Moore’s headed goal that set the tone for an improved second-half display from Wales after Belgium had swept into a 2-0 interval lead. “In the first, we lacked a lot of belief. We didn’t know how good we could be on this night, and especially what we could bring going forward. We didn’t show any of that. In the second half we came out with a different mentality and did ourselves proud. Poland is a massive game to stay in this league. It’ll be a really big game and we’ll all be ready for it.”

We will of course carry reports later in the day on this crucial game.

Photographs licensed from Reuters

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