Daka: Special To Be With The Fans

- Patson Daka reflects on his first outing for Leicester City
- City’s summer signing played 45 minutes in Saturday’s pre-season friendly at Burton Albion
- Daka says it was special to play in front of the Club’s supporters for the first time

The popular Zambia international donned a Foxes shirt for the first time as he completed the first 45 minutes of City’s pre-season opener at Pirelli Stadium.

Backed by a strong presence of Leicester fans, Daka spoke of his delight to get a maiden run out for Brendan Rodgers’ outfit.

“I think it was really important to get some minutes, it was really, really amazing to be out here, especially with the fans,” he told LCFC TV. “It was really important to get this feeling. It's an emotional day for me wearing this jersey. It was really special.

“I was looking forward to it, and today, it's a day that I will treasure not just looking at the result, but also getting the experience and getting to understand each other with my team-mates.

“It was really important to see how we can work together going forward and just to see what we have to really work on.”

While City were contesting their first pre-season fixture, Burton played out their fourth match of the summer, as Daka emphasised the importance of identifying where his team will seek to improve in the coming weeks.

He said: “It was really a physical game. I think we tried to cope with the physicality. We did our very best that we could. Like I said, it's the first game of pre-season.

“So, we still have a lot of time to work on the areas that we have to work on. I'm sure that in the next game we will do even much better.

“Every match for me is really important because it's a different challenge every day, and you learn different things in each and every game.

“So, I look forward to every game that we play. I think it's also important for each of the players to get that full fitness, match fitness, to get more minutes to play and I think it's a great way forward for the team because we're getting the minutes in and we're trying to see that we need to work on these areas.”

City next face Wycombe Wanderers on Wednesday (7:30pm kick-off), before taking on Queens Park Rangers four days later (3pm kick-off).

Then, Villarreal visit King Power Stadium on Wednesday 4 August (7:45pm kick-off) as City’s pre-season campaign concludes against the UEFA Europa League holders.

“It has been great and like I said, [I'm] still trying to work together with my team-mates, to understand each other more and to get that connection between ourselves,” Daka said of pre-season to date.

"So, the training that we have had [over] the couple of weeks, it has been really great. It's helping to get back to full fitness, which I think is really important for all of us, looking how we are from the break.

"We're trying to get back to full fitness, so, it has been really good for us.”

All three of City’s remaining pre-season matches will be shown live and free on LCFC TV.