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Benji Kimpioka: Sunderland and AIK setbacks have helped Swedish striker hit goal trail with St Johnstone

The 24-year-old has been a star of Saints' Premier Sports Cup group games.

Benji Kimpioka has been scoring plenty of goals early in the season.
Benji Kimpioka has been scoring plenty of goals early in the season. Image: Shutterstock

‘Never give up’ and ‘no regrets’ are two career and life mantras for St Johnstone striker Benji Kimpioka.

And, after starting the season with five goals in four games, the Swedish forward is reaping the rewards of both.

Kimpioka has helped Saints team into the last-16 of the Premier Sports Cup, where they will face holders, Rangers.

He did this by earning the penalty that broke the deadlock in the first game against Brechin, scoring the two goals that saw off Morton and then grabbing another double in Saturday’s thrashing of East Fife.

He’s already on a total that is just two shy of the number last season’s top scorer, Nicky Clark, reached.

And it looks as if bold decisions to leave big clubs like Sunderland and AIK of Stockholm are now starting to pay off in Perth.

“I’ve always said that I am very grateful for that Sunderland team,” said Kimpioka, who burst on to the scene as an 18-year-old.

“Jack Ross, John Potter and James Fowler gave me confidence by putting me into first-team football early in my career and doing a lot of work with me.

“In pre-season they saw one of the 23s’ friendly games where I scored a hat-trick.

“After that, I was in.

Benjamin Kimpioka on the pitch, and holding a ball, in his Sunderland days
Benjamin Kimpioka was a bright young star in the Sunderland academy. Image: Shutterstock.

“And really early on, there were rumours about me and another Swedish guy, Joel Asoro, and Arsenal.

“I think it was just talk and I tried to focus on Sunderland because you can get above yourself if you listen to these stories too much.”

Family advice key for Benji Kimpioka

Kimpioka, who was Sunderland’s first goalscorer born in the 21st Century and found the net four times in 16 appearances, added: “A lot happened at the start for me at Sunderland that I was grateful for.

“Then, in football like life in general, there are ups and downs that come.

“My first down was after I left.

“It was tough but, as a person, I’ve learned that the tough moments in life are things you can be as grateful for as the top moments.

“That’s because they are the ones that build you and make you ready for other moments.

“I knew that it was something I would get through because I will never give up.

Striker Benji Kimpioka training with St Johnstone
St Johnstone striker Benji Kimpioka.

“Something I’ve learned since being very young, from my brothers and father and people around me, is to never have any regrets.

“So any decision I go through, I have to go through 100 per cent. Some people might say that I left Sunderland too early.

“Because when I left there, they thought I was really going to cement a place.

“But I felt it was the right time to go back to AIK in Sweden, a big club, with my family, in a capital city.

“If that was the right thing or not, I felt that it was.”

Next stop: Perth

Kimpioka only scored once for AIK and was loaned out to FC Luzern in Switzerland before the Swedish top-flight club agreed to release him when Saints made an approach in January.

“It (AIK) made me learn how setbacks can be and how it is to play in a big city where everything revolves around the team,” he said.

“Everything is a learning curve, which I am grateful for and I will never regret that.”

Benji Kimpioka scores to make it 2-0 against East Fife.
Benji Kimpioka scores to make it 2-0 against East Fife. Image: SNS.

Kimpioka has ambitions to become a Sweden international, and is going the right way about it with Saints.

“I’ve played for the under-21 team,” he said.

“One of my main goals in football is to represent my country at first-team level.

“21s was good, I played a lot of games for them but you obviously want to go to the first team.”

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