By El Akyereko Frimpong
Follow the writer on Twitter: @AkyerekOfficial
German-born Ghanaian defender Marcel Appiah has told GHANAsoccernet.com he is confident he can reap the dividends of his impressive pre-season efforts as he gets ready for his first top-flight experience.
The 27-year-old lanky defender has flourished in five pre-season games with four assists as the newly-promoted Eredivisie side round up their pre-season campaign a last clash against Spanish side Levante on Saturday.
NEC have rewarded Appiah with a one-year-contract following his influential role in their promotion campaign and he feels ready for his first test in a top-flight European league after playing lower division football in German and the Netherlands.
"We have played a couple of games against lower division side but the game against Ross County was good because they played extremely well in the first-half because we didn't concrete but in the second-half we kept them running," he told GHANAsoccernet.com.
"I've given four assists in five games from defence and I think it's getting well for me. I need to keep working harder and harder. We will play our last game against Levante on Saturday and I hope to optimize it," he added.
Appiah was born to a German mother and a Ghanaian father in Germany but is yet to be capped by any of the two countries of his parents.