In his latest exclusive Betway blog, our global ambassador discusses the Ballon d'Or, El Clasico, Arsenal's upcoming trip to Anfield and more.
What was your reaction to Harry Kane winning the Ballon d’Or?
It was well deserved for Harry Kane. He is the perfect example of work ethic – you can turn to your kids and say, “look at what happens when you work really hard.”
Look at all the teams he played for on loan – Leicester, Millwall, Norwich. He was a pure goalscorer, and look at how he evolved, how he became clever, how he goes into midfield. He defends, he attacks, he drops and takes the ball in between the two centre-backs. He takes goal kicks from a corner realising that Bayern left three people up front. He’s ahead of the game.
He is a complete player and so the Ballon d’Or was well deserved, and it’s the reward for a hard-working career. You have to have mad respect for that.
Bukayo Saka won the Socrates award. How pleased were you to see him recognised for being a special person, as well as a special player?
You saw how emotional he was when he read that letter in his speech – that’s the Bukayo Saka I know.
He’s humble, he has good people around him, his family is outstanding, and his other half is outstanding. He helps people on and off the field. That’s Bukayo Saka in a nutshell – a lovable guy and a great player.
What were your takeaways from El Clasico at the weekend, with Real Madrid beating your former club Barcelona 2-1?
It was the first time this year that I’ve seen Real Madrid playing like that. They were compact, not conceding a lot of opportunities, being very difficult to beat and sound on the counter.
Kylian Mbappe scored two goals and was named Man of the Match, but Jude Bellingham? Wow. The way he played reminded me of England’s game in Mexico. He was holding it, turning people, winning a foul, finding a pass or going through himself. I have to give him a lot of credit, the way he played was just a joke.
Well done to Mourinho. The jury was out on whether he could still do it, and he showed he can. They knew they couldn’t afford to lose because a gap of nine points with that goal difference would have been very difficult.
It’s still a long road, everyone thought it would be very difficult to stop Barcelona, but this is why it’s very difficult to predict these things. Barcelona were outstanding in the first 10 games and then suddenly they lose to Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid.
Of course, I’ll always support Barcelona in Spain and it’s never nice to lose El Clasico, but I have to say fair play to Real Madrid.
Are we entering a new era of El Clasico defined by Mbappe and Yamal, similar to the Messi and Ronaldo era?
I would like to think so. If you think of Real Madrid now, you’re going to mention Mbappe first. It’s the same as the previous era when you might mention Bale, Modric and Benzema, but Ronaldo was the front man. Mbappe will be the front man, even though Bellingham is with him.
At Barcelona, they have a lot of great players, but Lamine Yamal is the guy and will be the guy for a long time.
So Yamal and Kylian will have a very long rivalry in La Liga, and also maybe to win the Ballon d’Or. They are the two guys who are going to be the stars when it comes to those matches between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
For a Real Madrid or Barcelona player, how important is it to deliver in El Clasico, as Mbappe has?
El Clasico stays in people’s minds, because of the magnitude of the game. Sometimes it can stop the run of the other team, and I hope this one doesn’t stop Barcelona’s run, but it does galvanise the team that wins it. Real Madrid didn’t start well this season, but now they have the bragging rights and everything is erased with that win. Now they need to show that they can carry on.
Kylian now has eight goals in seven Clasicos, and seven goals at Camp Nou. But that’s Kylian, at the end of the day. Whenever you win El Clasico, you make history. It’s as simple as that.
We saw two big Champions League games with PSG v Barcelona and Bayern v Arsenal. Do you see those four teams as the top contenders for the trophy?
Let’s see who is going to come good later in the tournament. A lot of players got injured in those games – Kvaratskhelia, Marquinhos, Dembele, Olmo and Saka all left the field. If it’s a quarter-final or later, you also won’t see Barcelona resting Rodri, but they had El Clasico to come.
So we’ll see what happens later, how the draw looks, what paths these teams will take. One thing with PSG is that when it matters, and they have to send a message, they just find a way. Everyone, including me, was saying Barcelona look scary. But against Man City and Barcelona, PSG showed both of those teams that they are still the best at the moment.
Arsenal travel to Anfield this weekend, where Man City have already won comfortably. Is there more pressure on that game for Arsenal as a result?
I never used to look at the league like that as a player. City didn’t win at Villa this season, and Arsenal did. Arsenal lost at Villa last year. You can also mention that we won at Brighton last year and didn’t this year.
You can look at history and see that some teams struggle at certain grounds, like Tottenham at Chelsea until last weekend, but then you break the ice and it’s all good.
Last year we lost at Anfield, Szoboszlai scored an outstanding free kick, so let’s see what happens this time. We played a lot of games without Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz, but still managed to find a way. Look at who scored the other day – Konsa and Gabriel. This team finds a way to win games.
After the defeat against Brighton, I said we have to see if that game would be a heavy one for the Arsenal players. They reacted well, and I thought the approach to the game against Bayern Munich was very good, trying to be on the ball, put pressure on and play through the lines.
Let’s see what happens away from home against a Liverpool team who are looking a bit better, especially against Brighton. I thought that was going to be a challenge for them, but fair play, they are playing well.
With Arsenal’s injuries in wide areas, do you think Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke can benefit from a longer run in the side?
This is why you have a strong squad. Mikel Arteta knows that some players will be missing, some will get injured, and then others will have their time. When they have a chance to show what they can do, they need to show it, and Eze and Madueke have been showing it. Eze scored against Bayern, Madueke came on and scored against Nottingham Forest, so they are having an impact.
Players are coming off the bench for Arsenal and scoring. That shows you that they aren’t passengers, and usually they come on and change the game. That’s the luxury of having good players on the bench, and that’s why Mikel Arteta is calm when he’s asked questions about players like Eze and why they aren’t playing so much.
You named Anfield and Celtic Park as the loudest places you’ve played. Can you block out that noise as a player?
You do block it out. When they start to sing You’ll Never Walk Alone, it is a beautiful sight, but when you’re playing against them, you block it. When you’re not in the game, you’re like, wow, the atmosphere is great, but as a player you can’t get carried away.
It’s loud, yes, and it’s intimidating, but it’s not hostile. You try to use it as a player to motivate you to make sure you shut the place down. In the dressing room you say, “guys, let’s keep the crowd quiet, start well, play well, and everything will die down.” Block out the noise, use it, and let’s go.
Visit Betway’s football betting page for all the latest markets and odds.
