BOLASIE: THE DAY I BEAT USAIN BOLT
YANNICK BOLASIE is explaining the benefits of having a ‘speed mechanic’ when the fastest player at Everton tells a story about the fastest man on earth. Usain Bolt is one of the many figures to whom Bolasie looks in his constant quest to develop an edge but it turns out the man who has spent almost his whole life in first place, has to play second fiddle when he steps on to a five-a-side court.
‘I’ve played football with him,’ says Bolasie, dropping that sentence in the middle of an answer about whether he studies Olympic sprinters to hone his technique and what benefits he gains from seeing a personal trainer twice a week.
‘We played a game at a pitch somewhere in Chelsea, just a little muck-around. I know his mates and the people who manage him. He was knocking around in London and wanted a game of football, so they invited me along. I brought my brothers with me and we got two teams together.
‘It was around about this time last year. Is he any good? He’s all right, to be fair! We had a race! There are some videos of it somewhere, it was good fun. I need to try to get hold of it. But the game? Obviously my team won!’
Bolasie has hit the ground at full throttle having cost Everton £25million when he left Crystal Palace last month. His speed has given Ronald Koeman’s side a potent edge in their unbeaten start in the Premier League. It is clear from the 30 minutes we spend at the club’s Finch Farm headquarters how much he is enjoying life, and Romelu Lukaku has played a key role in helping him settle. They are neighbours in Bowdon, a village in south Manchester, and their budding friendship means Bolasie has been able to quickly ‘forgive’ Lukaku for taking a goal off him in last week’s 3- 1 win over Middlesbrough. ‘Typical striker,’ he says. ‘He owes me one now!’
Feeling he is due a goal from Lukaku, though, is Bolasie’s only sense of entitlement. This is a man who has worked relentlessly for everything. He was born in Lyon but moved to south London when he was just seven months old and was raised by a tight-knit family.
He could have chosen to play for England or France, but opted for DR Congo, where his father is from.
‘I go to play for Congo now and it’s a reality check,’ he says. ‘You see how it is for some people and you don’t take things for granted. A lot of the people in Congo, to get the opportunity that I have had, I don’t know what they’d do. They would probably snap your hand off five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 times.’
His journey to the top end of the Premier League began, unusually, with the Maltese club Floriana. From there, he had a spell with Plymouth, went on loan to Rushden & Diamonds and Barnet, then joined Bristol City. Soon Palace came knocking.
Given how he has started, with two assists so far, Everton will miss Bolasie when he goes to the Africa Cup of Nations in January but before that there is plenty of time to help out his new club as they pursue a place in Europe.
It was hard, he says, to tell Alan Pardew he wanted to leave Palace. There were possibilities to join Leicester, Tottenham and West Ham but the chance to play for Koeman was too good to turn down.
The Dutchman sang his praises before Southampton played Palace in December 2014 but Koeman’s admiration for him does not mean he gets preferential treatment, evidence of this comes when he has to break off from the interview to go for breakfast at 9am, which is compulsory.
‘He is very strict,’ Bolasie says of Koeman. ‘But he just wants to help you towards the game on Saturday. We had a game of head tennis recently and he wasn’t happy with it. It is all about technique and concentration. You can easily lose (focus) but you don’t want to lose it in front of him.
‘He doesn’t want any of the players to lose concentration. If that comes, that complacency might stretch into a game. The training, the intensity, it is just to another level. He makes you take it into your lifestyle. He is going to be big in the future.’
Such a statement may also be true of Bolasie, who won’t stop striving for self-improvement. ‘When I am out on the pitch, I think you have got to play every game like it is your last,’ he says. ‘You never know, do you?
‘But if I learn a couple of movements, if I keep working with my personal trainer and get a couple of learning curves off the coach, I think I will be all right.
‘ I was pretty comfortable at Crystal Palace and I could have easily stayed but I wanted to challenge myself, to test myself. I wanted to do that at Everton.’
Koeman won’t let you lose focus. He’s going to be big
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