Prince of the playground
So how did Yannick Bolasie get the exciting style that has made him a £25m player who Palace hope can take them into the top six? ‘30 people in the park all trying to score in one goal, dribbling left, then right, round the kids’ slide, through the Wendy
YOU will know Yannick Bolasie. Maybe only recently have Premier League defenders realised exactly what a handful he is. But you will know him as the man who overshadowed Steven Gerrard’s farewell at Anfield last May to such an extent that he was applauded off by the Kop; as the man who bewildered Chelsea earlier in the season when winning at Stamford Bridge was still a rarity; as the man who returned to Anfield two weeks ago to play the central role in defeating Liverpool once again.
Put simply, Bolasie running into space with the ball at his feet can scramble the brain of the coolest defender. He is unusual for a footballer raised in England, playing with a freedom of spirit and an unpredictability that is attracting serious attention, even though his manager Alan Pardew says that £25million would not buy him and he has recently signed a four-year deal with Crystal Palace.
Though he was born in Lyon, he is pretty much homegrown, having lived in London since he was seven months old. Had he not opted two and a half years ago to play for his parents’ country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, when Palace were still a Championship side — Bolasie was 24 and England seemed a long way off — then Roy Hodgson would almost certainly be including him in his current squad.
So which exalted football academy honed the bewitching skills, dribbling technique and the speed of the man who could see Wembley Stadium from his childhood home and who attended the same primary school as Raheem Sterling? Was it Palace? His local club, QPR? Chelsea, perhaps, or maybe Arsenal, 10 miles from his home?
The answer is none of the above. No professional club showed any interest in the schoolboy Bolasie, though he had a short spells with non-League Rushden and Diamonds and Hillingdon Borough and seems phlegmatic about it all. ‘I might not have been good enough!’ he says, and then laughs, embarrassed.
If you want to know why Bolasie is proving such a handful for defenders you would be better studying the children’s playground in Unity Close, Willesden, specifically the Wendy house and the slide, which seem to have been key components in developing his compelling style.
‘It’s got to do with playing in the park, with 30 people, all trying to shoot into one goal when you’re playing with one ball,’ says Bolasie. ‘So, literally you’re dribbling with the ball and someone’s there and you have to turn this way and then turn left and then turn right, because the park was so packed. So you have to turn as quick as you can. A lot of that unpredictability does come from that, I guess.
‘I think it has definitely got to do with playing free football. A lot of people from Harlesden who used to play would definitely agree with that. And then the obstacles as well.’
The obstacles? ‘It wasn’t just people, it was obstacles as well. This could be in the way and you have to dribble round that or jump over it or flick the ball over it. Things like the children’s slide or the little house they play in. You had to go under that.
‘So some people would kick the ball through the little house and run round, or kick through it and go under. If someone new came to the park and it was you against him, you would know how to use the obstacles so much better, so they’d be confused. I’d get the ball and bounce it off them and I’d know where it was going to go because I’d done it so many times, which he wouldn’t.’ Maybe this accounts for the freedom in his play, which last season saw an outrageous flick and turn against Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen attract global attention. There is something almost South American about him. It’s a lack of formal coaching, a deficit which he has turned to his advantage.
It has all happened relatively quickly in the past two seasons after a slow start to his career with a year at Floriana FC in Malta, then to Plymouth, with loan spells at Rushden and Barnet and a season at Bristol City before the move to Palace in 2012. Yet he was still an unused substitute when Palace won promotion via the play-offs in 2013. Only when Tony Pulis and then Pardew knocked some of the raw edges off him has he thrived.
He says he has matured in his sense of responsibility to his family too, a growth which was sadly necessitated in August when his father died of a heart attack. Gaby Bolasie, who had played for DR Congo Under 21s, was the football man in the family.
‘He used to come to a lot of the matches and was always ringing me after every game,’ says Bolasie. ‘He would just talk about the game. If I needed to do something more, he’d say. If I didn’t play good he’d say: “No, you weren’t good”. But he was the one saying you should be free and play
‘It’s a different kind of responsibility now because I’m the oldest male in my family. It didn’t take i'ts toll on me straight away. It started [ to do so slowly. Obviously because you’re just playing football. But you come to th playing the way that you would want to or the way you saw yourself playing last season.’
He lives with fiacee Kelsey, son Kaidy and baby daughter Olivia in Ickenham, close to where he grew up Gradually, he says
terms with the loss. His father’s home was just a place on a map to him before he committed to them just over two years ago. He had not been to DR Congo until he accepted the call-up from the national team. He was a Londoner, immersed in grime music and playing football.
This year though he helped them to third place at the Africa Cup of Nations and now he cannot go out in Kinshasa and regularly plays in front of 100,000 somewhat demanding fans at the impressive Martyrs Stadium. ‘It’s definitely easier to go out in London than Kinshasa,’ he says. ‘And the atmosphere is up there with the best that I’ve played in. Obviously I haven’t played in front of 100,000 fans yet in England. But it’s something else.’
The skills learned in the playground came in handy last week when he was playing in Burundi, where he scored in DR Congo’s 3-2 win on a waterlogged pitch.
‘In England, anywhere in Europe, that match would cancelled. But it’s Africa and you have to expect the unexpected,’ he says.
Playing for England wasn’t on the radar when he made the decision to play for DR Congo and he says he has no regrets. ‘I didn’t know I was going to get into the Premier League then; everything has just fallen into my path so I’m just taking it as I go. I thought it was no-brainer and now when I look back I’m pleased.’
Now he is aiming for the highest levels and when Pardew talks about more than £25m being needed to take him away from Palace, he tries not to listen. ‘I just take it on the chin and get on with it. You know football. I’ve seen some people and their attitude changes and I’m not that person. I think the level I’m trying to get to, there’s only a certain kind of team that I can go to. But I don’t really think about it. The priority is to get Palace where we need to get and our target is confidential.’
Palace though are, along with Leicester, one of the teams of the season. The EuropaEuro p League is a realistic goal over the thhe next few years, though Bolasie one dayd might be heading for the ChampionsCha League. ‘That’s the dreamdr obviously. At the momentm we’re faced with reality and where we’re at right now. And right now I’m in a good place.’
There is one thing he knows he needs to add to his game before that becomesb his reality. Despite copiousco assists and his obvious contribution to the team, he hasha just two goals this season. Last seasonse it was five, which included a hat-trick against tomorrow’s opponents Sunderland.
‘I know I need to add goals but I can’t force it, because as soon as I do that, the game that I normally play starts to change: don’t want to take people for runs, don’t want to dribble, scared to lose the ball and have to play the game the safest way I can. And that’s not me.
‘It’s got to come naturally for me. It’s got to come with me playing the way that I want to play and then adding the goals.’
If it does, then that £25m price tag won’t seem quite so outlandish.
I think the level I’m trying to get to, there’s only a certain kind of team that I can go to