'Winning the World Cup is when playing bingo and all your songs are coming! This allows you to breathe in a different way. '
Argentina and Lyon left back Nico Tagliafico tests his English and is doing pretty well.
“The medal and the two shirts that I wore in the final are stored safely, even though I have not washed them,” he adds, to think back to Qatar '22 and the penalty shootout victories in France. 'I wanted to keep them with all the essence of Lusail Stadium. I would not exchange them for anything.
“Football gives you many difficult moments in life, but winning the World Cup enabled me to enjoy football more.”
Not that Tagliafico takes the prospect to be confronted in the quarterfinals of the Europa League on Thursday evening. The fire stays. You would expect little else from a man with the nickname 'Samurai' because of his love for the Japanese warrior spirit and culture.
And not least because he still wears the scars of his earlier meeting with the British opposition in Europe – when Tottenham launched a stunning comeback to defeat Ajax on the way to the Champions League final in 2019.
Lucas Moura's 96th minute Hattrick goal that night caused the victory on road goals and a memory tagliafico still describes as 'the worst moment in my football career'.
A youthful Ajax, under a certain Erik ten Hag, had already thrown Real Madrid and Juventus away on their way to the semi -final and had had control.
“That was a difficult moment,” says Tagliafico, who played that evening next to Andre Onana, Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui.
“We were a young team and maybe we relax. It was really strange that the last 45 minutes. It should not have been possible, but those experiences make you more mature.
'There is a Japanese saying, Nanakorobi Yaoki: you fall down seven times, but you are at eight. In other words, you get up, you keep going.
“I used to feel the pressure to win a trophy, a kind of” How can I live with this? ” 'But after winning the largest, the World Cup, it helped me with perspective.
'To play teams such as Real Madrid, Juventus and now Manchester United, they are all beautiful challenges that I look forward to and enjoy. Of course I would like them more by winning. '
The mention of playing under ten Hag raises the question: why does Tagliafico think that his former boss failed at Old Trafford?
'It is not easy to take that step from Ajax. United is a large club with great pressure. Erik is a smart guy, very good in tactics and strategy. But at Ajax he had young players who would follow his movements when you meet new players with more experience. It is not always easy to have them follow in the same way.
It is difficult to fully understand because I was not in the dressing room. '
However, Tagliafico could have been. Tweewen United has had him on Shortlists in recent seasons, including Arsenal, but deals cannot be reached. On 32, and from the contract in the summer, he still houses the ambition to play in the Premier League, one that he describes as the 'most difficult in the world'.
He knows so much about his Argentinian friends, United's Lisandro Martinez and Aston Villas 'Good, Crazy' keeper Emi Martinez.
Speaking from his house in Lyon, in sight of the river Rhone, looked Tagliafico from the Manchester Derby last Sunday, but was not surprised by his lukewarm nature.
'Sometimes football is like chess where you try to find openings. It requires concentration, but can be boring to look. Manchester City is not at their best moment, but United was smart. They set up a system to try to restore the ball and counterattack. '
The toothless attack by United can be seen as an advantage for Lyon prior to the first stage on Thursday, but Tagliafico has been here before.
'They still have really good players. Experience tells me that you have to concentrate with these games for more than 90 minutes.
'If you leave an opening, they can still kill you. Bruno Fernandes is in good condition, he has high quality on the ball and Alejandro Garnacho that I know is very dangerous in one-on-one situations, really fast. On paper they may look like they have the better names of familiar, but it's about who is the best team. '
Garnacho remains a mystery in a united shirt and Tagliafico believes that his countryman can benefit from a different approach.
'I saw good qualities when he first stepped into the team, but with a new coach and different styles he might have lost a bit of confidence. If you miss this as a winger and at Club like United, it's not easy.
'I know he has had a number of difficult moments among the coach, but maybe he needs more support on the field.
'Sometimes it's more about communication. When a wing player plays in front of me, I like to talk to him. Encourage him to take another V one more or to say when to stop. He is still very young. Maybe that is what he needs more at United. But he is very fast, he has talent. Certainly, he can be a star. '
Tagliafico needs to know something about Wingers. As a left back, he has spent many training session trying to prevent him from being turned inside out by people like Lionel Messi and Angel di Maria.
'Training against Messi is a bit like shade boxing. I leave my shadow as close as possible to him. We try to stop him without kicking him, we don't want to injure our best player! It's so difficult, you rarely get the ball away from him.
'But training for our national team is so difficult with all players. We each try to do our best, so it is sometimes more difficult to play in those sessions than the games. It is more fun to play the games. '
Hard training is an example that he likes to play in Lyon and one that is shared by Martinez. The two played together on Ajax and in the World Cup winning team. Fatherhood and injury have recently put Martinez aside, but the two will be in contact in the coming days. “Maybe we come together through a barbecue – in real Argentinian style.”
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