Keita (1): "I will bring more in the future"

In an interview with Catalan sports paper Sport, Barcelona midfielder Seydou Keita talked about his first months at the club.





Several weeks have passed since your arrival but you haven't yet showed your best, why is that?
In other clubs, the player are running a lot, here it's the ball that's running. You always have to be at the right place. The football we're playing is totally different compared with my previous clubs. Here the team always has the ball and every player has his zone. If you don't have the ball, you have to wait. It's all about adaptation. It's easier to adapt to other clubs than to this one. Other clubs have a different philosophy.

Playing with Barcelona is very different?
It is, because in France and with Sevilla I always played 4-4-2. But that's not an excuse, a player should be able to adapt to the system of his club.

Being 28, you're arriving here at the right time or you should have come earlier?
Nobody knows what can happen tomorrow. Today I'm here and I wait to see what will happen because it's difficult for a player when the team doesn't win trophies. The most important thing is winning matches and trophies. When the team plays well, it's better for the indivduals. If the team doesn't play well, I won't be good either.

Are you giving everything we can expect?
Of course I should offer more but I'm just here for a few months. Joining another club is always difficult. I arrived a few months ago and I still have to adapt. But I sure will bring more in the future.

The club is what you expected?
Before arriving here, I knew it was a very big club. So in that sense, the pressure doesn't surprise me. Nothing has surprised me actually.

You felt really comfortable in Sevilla. How do you feel here?
I also had some difficult months when I arrived in Sevilla. It's not really difficult here but I just had to show more in my first months. There are eight months left and the season is very long. The most important thing for everyone, including the press, is that the team is playing well.

Maybe you need some extra motivation, like when they appointed you as captain in Lens and you grew as a player.
I'm a player who needs to have responsibility and to feel that my game is respected. I'm new here so I have to win everybody's respect. It's a matter of time before I will be able to feel totally integrated, regarding my team-mates, the coaches, the club and even the fans.

Scoring would do you good...
Yes, it would mean a lot to me. Although I'm not a goalscorer. At Sevilla I scored my first goal after eight matches against Real Madrid. I like to score but my main qualities are others.


This was the first part of this interview. You will be able to read the second and last part in the coming days with Keita talking - amongst other things - about the atmosphere in the dressing-room and about being a muslim.