Filling, 16, and Geiger, who had just turned 18, made their all-Swedish league debuts in front of nearly 40,000 spectators at the national arena in Solna. They were highly involved in the 3-0 win against IFK Göteborg. Striker Filling scored the 2-0 goal, Geiger played stably as left defender and was involved in the origin of Filip Benkovic's leading goal.
Afterwards, the teenagers were praised by fans, their coach and teammates.
Great fun. They come up from the academy and are thrown in directly. It's about handling the pressure. It's not BP away we're talking about, but IFK Göteborg at home. They play as if they haven't done anything else. It's good for AIK. We have had too few young players who have come up, says national team midfielder Anton Salétros.
"Enormous performance"
Mikkjal Thomassen decided on Saturday to bring forward both talents, who have not yet received A-team contracts with the club.
- They come in and deliver an enormous performance. A very fine match by Kevin and Yannick, says the Faroese and directs a thank you to the leaders and coaches in the academy for their work with young players.
AIK coach about Filling:
Fantastic day for him and his family. We are very happy on his behalf. He started because he trained enormously well. He has convinced me. Very ambitious. I had to call him in from the last training session. He stood half an hour after we finished training and practiced finishing.
He has taken enormous responsibility for his own development and it has gone quickly forward.
"Not to dare"
Mikkjal Thomassen means that it's not about him being brave when he gives two teenagers debuts in a match as big as the one against IFK Göteborg.
It's not about daring. I picked the best team today. It was a 16-year-old and a guy who turned 18 last week. We lined up with the strongest team we had.
We don't take into account what age they are. Kevin brings quality and energy. We are very impressed by him. Yannick has had an extraordinary development, says the AIK coach.
