Johan Bakayoko discusses Jürgen Klopp’s role in recruiting him to RB Leipzig

In an interview with Kicker, summer season RB Leipzig addition Johan Bakayoko has spoken on his resolution to decide on the German Crimson Bulls over Bundesliga Champions League representatives Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund. The 22-year-old made clear that, with the workforce performing properly, there was completely no cause for him to remorse his resolution.

Bakayoko – together with fellow new RB summer season acquisition Yan Diomande – instantly gelled beneath new RB head coach Ole Werner in coaching camp. The Belgian worldwide has now featured in all six of Werner’s league beginning XIs and scored two league targets; each game-winners in slender 1-0 victories over Mainz 05 and VfL Wolfsburg.

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Bakayoko acquired the possibility – simply as his membership teammates Diomande and Ridle Baku – to precise unbridled enthusiasm for the Leipzig undertaking. Although the Saxons aren’t contesting Europe this yr, Bakayoko maintains religion that the work of membership sporting director Marcel Schäfer and new RB Head of International Soccer Jürgen Klopp will yield the appropriate outcomes.

“I didn’t anticipate to settle in so simply,” Bakayoko mentioned of his new residence. “The membership is so massive. The services are unbelievable. Everybody helped me settle in rapidly. I feel we’ve actually gelled as a workforce. The chemistry throughout the workforce and the entire setting is correct. It’s a superb group. Everybody does their job meticulously and everybody could be very shut. The coach can be doing a terrific job and has clear concepts. It’s very nice to be a part of the entire thing.

“The imaginative and prescient RB had for me was unimaginable,” Bakayoko went on to say. “The folks in cost actually had a transparent plan for what they needed to do with me and the way they might assist me. The talks with everybody right here, the coach and Marcel Schäfer, have been very optimistic. I may sense that they actually needed me. That’s why, of all of the choices I had, this one was the very best for me.

“[Jürgen Klopp] and I talked for nearly two hours,” Bakayoko continued. “He’s a legend, not solely in soccer, but additionally as an individual; he’s simply nice and charismatic. The dialog made it even simpler for me to say that my resolution was the appropriate one. He didn’t attempt to persuade me outright. We talked about all types of issues, together with soccer and life

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“He requested me what I needed out of life, what I needed to attain as a soccer participant, and the way Leipzig may assist me try this,” Bakayoko concluded. “We additionally talked about small particulars and the way issues would work. After that, it was clear to me that if somebody has a lot information about one thing, they will actually enable you to take the subsequent step.”

GGFN | Peter Weis