Keita (2): "Every player should feel important"

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


(you can read the first part of the interview here)


You feel comfortable with how Guardiola sees the game?
I do. Barcelona plays always good. All the players are very talented and technically they are very good. It's very easy to play together with them. Besides that, we now also have the winning mentality. It's not easy to talk about my coach because there can be misinterpretations. It's logic that I'm saying good things, but I'm being sincere when I say that we're working very good. He talks with every player and although there are a lot of great players, everyone should feel important. You cannot play a season with 11 or 12 players. Every player should feel important.

You're refering to the rotations?
Let's see. To play at Barcelona you need to have some talent. So everyone here can play and add something to the team. If we're all important, that will sure benefit the club.

You also feel the need, like Abidal said, to go out with your team-mates?
Every three days, there's a game. You arrive at 10 in the morning, you train, you eat here, so you don't have a lot spare time. The time we have is for the family. It can be important to go out together but for me a group needs to have the same objective: winning trophies. You should work for that and, if possible, go out one day. But that's not a problem. Abidal was talking more about the mentality of the group than about going out together. Personally I like to spend time at home, with my family, listening to african music and watching television.

Alves says you don't need to be friends with every team-mate, as long as you play well together on the pitch.
I agree. He has a winning mentality. If you want to win, you won't be able to do that if you don't talk with your team-mates. We're all coming alone very well, both on and off the pitch.

Football is the same everywhere?
I think so, yes. It's the same everywhere. In France, England, Spain...

Also at a passion level?
In Sevilla people live football very intense, like here. There are clubs that are more calm and that don't have the atmosphere you have here before the games, with a lot of people in the streets. Every club has its own fans.

You think Europeans have a correct view of African football?
No. African football wasn't that good before but now you have a lot of African players who play with European top clubs and the level has increased.

What's the difference between African and other players?
I don't know. Africans are physically strong and technically good. But I don't hink there are real differences. Every player is different. Before African players maybe weren't as good tactically becuase you didn't have the youth academies. But now Africa also has them and you see the difference.

You already feel like a European player?
A little.

But you're missing Bamako?
Yes, Bamako is my city, that's where my friends live, my family, my brothers and sisters, my mother. Everybody lives there. Bamako is the most important city in my life. I have everything there. Every time I can, I go and visit everybody. It makes me happy.

You're a muslim.
It's a way to have some guidance in life. Thanks to my beliefs, I don't have problems with anybody because that's the way to act. Being a muslim is not that easy these days. We have generally a bad image, but a muslim is a person who is very calm and has respect for everything, someone who doesn't want to hurt anybody.


This was the second and last part of this interview.

Read the first part here:

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