Nabil Bentaleb has given a series of soundbites to German magazine SportBildĀ this week.
He said he didn’t regret his loan move from Tottenham to Schalke, because the German club believe in him, that the crowd there were more supportive in hard times, and said he’d love to control games like Pirlo.
After the headline grabbing stuff, Bentaleb also spoke about honing his skills as a child. The 21 year old explainedĀ he was so football crazy that it distracted him from his school work.
The Tottenham owned player jokingly said: “I was not a particularly good pupil, I was focused on football. I shouldn’t say any more, but the time in school I used to rest from my football training.”
SportBild were intrigued to know how Bentaleb had built his technical skill, and the footballer revealed it came through a combination of things:Ā “InĀ my childhood in Lille I have played much street football, next to my football team was a futsal team. On Saturday it was football, futsal on Sundays.Ā And on the street, games man to man.”
It sounds like a good recipe to build a wide set of skills, and it’s certainly worked for Bentaleb given he made it as a professional footballer and is owned by a huge club like Tottenham, and on loan to another huge club in Schalke.
Given that he used school to rest from playing the game, it’sĀ a good job he didn’t need something to fall back on.
