The catalyst for the summer movement from Johan Bakayoko to Leipzig was a conversation with Red Bull's Head of Global Sport. “When I had the conversation with Jurgen Klopp, that was like the trigger point for me,” he explains. “I used to want to go. But now I have to go.”
Bakayoko laughs when asked what Klopp said exactly to convince him to leave PSV in Eindhoven and make the switch to RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga. “That was the most funny part of it,” he says. “We didn't even talk about him and wanted me to come.”
He explains: “It was really about football and what vision I have on football. He even told me, even if you go to another club, then you have to do this to better adapt.” The player did not appreciate the hard sale, just seen as a person.
“I thought, if someone like these talks to you in this kind and he wants to build a project and he wants you to be part of it, but he doesn't want to push you to be part of it, it gives you the freedom to express yourself. And that is all I need.”
Klopp has had that personal touch for a long time. The convinced Bakayoko. “I don't want to feel that I am under pressure in one way or another,” he adds. “I just want to feel that someone wants me to help his club.”
And Bakayoko is a player who can help. He has speed and skill, he scores goals and he entertains. Klopp will have seen his performance for PSV in their 3-2 victory over Liverpool in the Champions League in January, a match in which Bakayoko scored the opening goal.
PSV head coach Peter Bosz actually criticized his players for their show boating in that game, which suggests that it was disrespectful. Bakayoko was perhaps the most important perpetrator. But it's exactly how he sees the game. He is there to make a difference – and to have fun too.
He talks about that about that, he says: “I think that is only part of me. You expect that I do things like this. That's just like I am. That's not even something I think I do about. That's just something that is happening right now.
“That's not something I force [myself] To do, just because someone told me to do it, I will do it. For me, so I see football and the way I want to express myself on the field. “A showman, but someone who was powerful for PSV.
Don't be fooled by its total of one assist in their Eedivisie title win last season. That was much to due to the mistakes of others. Bakayoko was one of the top 20 for opportunities that were created per 90 minutes and also scored nine own goals in the competition.
Look at the spreading graph that shows players that score goals and create opportunities for others and it emphasizes that he was one of the most decisive players in the Eredivisie. The next one, the plot of goals and dribbles, shows why he was so entertaining.
Bosz had to convince Bakayoko to stay and be part of that titles success. “In my eyes last season was also a great opportunity to leave. But if the club does not want me to leave, that is not the perfect time.” There were “many conversations” between the couple.
“He wanted me to make the step at the right time and for him wasn't the right time for him last season. I thought it was. But if you have a good relationship with someone, you don't want to disappoint them because he helped me a lot when he came.”
The respect for Bosz is clear. “He gave me the chance, he made me a better player.” Bakayoko decided to do another year. “I really took his advice seriously and he said to me:” It's not the right moment, we still have a championship to win, “so I stayed with the plan.”
That plan brought him to Leipzig despite the interest from elsewhere. “For the past three years I think I might have been linked to every club in the world, maybe.” A Premier League movement was disputed, but Bakayoko wanted to find “the right project” and believes that he did that.
He describes his most important motivation as “only to get better”, which could explain why he rejected a lucrative switch to Saudi Arabia. At the age of 22 there is certainly time for him to add much more to his game and he clearly has the mentality to make it happen.
He takes visualization seriously and uses the technology to help him prepare. “It can be all, from my decision-making to the shooting to death, to go one V-one or to give a pass. It can be anything and I try to visualize and perfect it,” he explains.
“What can happen to me for my position? What could I have done better in the latest games? I am also starting to see new solutions in my game, what I can improve, where I miss a number of things, where I am already good and where I can be better.”
Bakayoko is in favor of the right flank, but he has been flexible since his early days in Belgium. “I played like the 10 and I also played on the left and it was pretty good, so I think I can do it.” The hope is that Leipzig coach Ole Werner can help him develop.
On just 37, Werner is a new coach from Coach. Bakayoko describes him as “someone with a completely new aspect of the game” – a relief. “He is like a young player who comes into a new team. He has the same mentality, the same hunger.” An ideal fit for Leipzig.
Leipzig has not been in Europe for the first time this season since they won promotion to the Bundesliga almost ten years ago, but perhaps that offers the chance of a new start for the club, the opportunity to build a new team – with players like Bakayoko in the heart.
“The basis is real. You see that the quality is real. The hunger to achieve things is real. The qualities of the coaches are real. The staff is real.” He adds: “The project for me was actually perfect. A club that really wanted me to grow.”
A club that really wanted him, completely stop. On Friday he makes his Bundesliga debut in Bayern Munich. “I feel excited. I am used to big games, but this is a very different environment.” An environment where he just had to be part of Jurgen Klopp.