Patrick Agyemang says former Derby County defender Nathan Byrne is one of his mentors and took the striker under his wing in the MLS.
The duo were team-mates at Charlotte FC during which the forward carved out a name for himself as one of America’s hottest properties.
Byrne was key to helping Agyemang settle in the early days before the striker went on to secure a move to Pride Park this summer in a £5.9m deal.
Derby were, ironically, Byrne’s last club in England and he was well placed to inform the American what was in store for him in the Championship.
And in an interview with the MLS and asked who his mentors were, Agyemang said the right-back was important.
“It’s crazy because it’s not even positional-based, but there’s a couple of guys on the team that kind of took me under their wing at Charlotte when I first got there,” he said.
“I could say Nathan Byrne right away. I was new to everything. I kind of kept to myself initially, and he just pulled me and said, ‘Look, you’ve got talent, now it’s just show it.’
“He just kind of took me under his wing, and I just started listening to him and seeing how he plays.
“You see him on the field, always running, always hitting somebody, always trying to give 100 per cent, and I wanted to do that as well. So he’s definitely helping me a long way.”
Byrne made 82 league appearances for Derby across a two-year spell during which he produced some impressive performances.
He left for Charlotte in August 2022, as Derby banked an undisclosed fee for the right-back who chose to terminate his contract.
The Rams had initially exercised a clause in the full-back’s deal to extend his stay for another 12 months.
But he exercised his right to leave the club under the Transfer of Undertakings following David Clowes’ takeover on July 1.
While staff are automatically switched to the new company, which is what happened at the time, employees also have the right to be told about the transfer and can object to the move, meaning they effectively resign.
