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Beyond the Pitch: William Akio on joining Ross County, his viral miss against Halifax and more

On Sunday, Valour FC confirmed that 23-year-old attacker William Akio had been sold to Ross County of the Scottish Premiership.

Before he departed for Scotland, Akio caught up with Kristian Jack of CanPL.ca to discuss the move to Ross County, getting to play with his brother, Victor Loturi (formerly of Cavalry FC), his miss against Halifax that went viral around the world, playing internationally for South Sudan and plenty more.

They start by talking about becoming the latest Canadian Premier League player to make the leap to Europe and how excited he is for this new opportunity.

“It all happened so fast,” said Akio of his transfer. “As a kid, I always wanted to play in Europe. I didn’t know how I was going to get there, when I was going to get there, but I always had it in my head that I was going to get there one day. I am super excited, it hasn’t like hit me yet, but I feel like once I get on the plane and head over there and touch down and see the stadium it will all hit me altogether.”

As the move was being finalized, however, Akio’s name was in the news for another reason. On July 10, in a match against Halifax, the young forward had arguably one of the worst misses in soccer history, as he cleared a ball that looked to be going in off the line.

The miss instantly made international headlines, and the video has been viewed over 10 million times on Twitter.

“One of the worst misses ever, and it happens, unfortunately, it was me,” Akio told Jack. “At the same time I didn’t really get too down on myself, obviously the first day, day and a half kind of sucked because my phone was just blowing up and all these messages, good messages… bad messages too. But I knew at this level anything could happen.”

He went on to tell CanPL.ca how this has all been a learning experience for him and how he has moved on from the difficult moment.

Speaking of learning experiences, he also speaks glowingly of his time spent with Valour FC and the Canadian Premier League, and how they got him to this point in his career.

“For me, this club has done everything,” said Akio. “They were so loving. so caring for me. They were the only club at the time that really wanted me. I was straight out of college, Rob Gale, he just took a chance on me.”

During the interview, Akio tells the story of how he first came to Valour and a tour with Gale that helped him decide he wanted to sign with the Winnipeg outfit. He also discusses another debut, one he made back in January for the South Sudan national team.

“When I put on that jersey and stepped on the field it was a different feeling, I was a whole new man,” said Akio. “Every touch I took, making the runs behind, the stadium, just seeing my bench, for me everything was so much emotion. It was surreal, was just so happy to represent my country at the national team level. All the players just showed so much love to me, trying to make sure I was comfortable when I was playing.”

The full interview is available to view above, or listen to below:

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