A Champions League winner with Liverpool, Georginio Wijnaldum arrived at PSG to great fanfare and excitement. Having now put a difficult start to life in France behind him, the 31-year-old can relax and enjoy his football. Interview.
For Wijnaldum, a gifted athlete, a life in some kind of sport always seemed to be on the cards - but his finding the beautiful game came somewhat circuitously, as he explained when he sat down for a chat with club magazine programme This is Paris.
"In the beginning, my connection with football was only playing football with my friends, because my first love in sport was gymnastics," the Dutchman recalled. "But because my grandma said it was too dangerous and I was living with my grandma at the time, I was not allowed to do gymnastics so I played football with my friends on the street. It was also something that brought us together. So from that moment, we saw that I had talent and I went to a talent day at Sparta Rotterdam!
No sweat
Wijnaldum found early on that he has one of the most important qualities for excelling at the highest level - a cool head.
"Even when I was young I didn't really feel pressure, when I was playing football and still when I play football I don't really have that pressure," he explained. "But when I'm not playing and my team-mates are playing, I'm quite nervous. It's also for example a penalty shootout - when I have to shoot it's ok, but watching my team-mates shoot I am nervous. I think because when you can play you can control the situations and when you're not playing you cannot control it!"
So, as he has taken some time to get into the swing of things in Paris, and more specifically in the PSG dressing room, Wijnaldum has been able to remain circumspect and not pile the pressure on himself.
"I'm just working hard to do as good as possible and change things around. I'm still learning, still learning my team-mates, still learning with the manager with who I'm working!" he smiled. "The country, of course, the language, the people in the country, it's all new for me but also for my family so I just do my best to adapt!"
And adapt he has, turning in some excellent performances in both Ligue 1 Uber Eats and the UEFA Champions League, with a total of three goals and one assist. Still, he expects things to get even better...
"You have to get to know each other, the system of playing, how you want to play. Not only for the players who come into the team but also for the players who welcome the new players because it's a new group of players who are coming together and they have to get used to each other!" He continued. "It takes time, but what I just said, football is a sport where there is not a lot of time. I had it also when I joined Liverpool in the beginning. It cost us a few years before we basically won something!"
'We can do better!'
Yet Wijnaldum knows that at PSG, one is rarely afforded time.
"I think the pressure on a team like PSG is always high because the club has so many possibilities," reasoned the Dutchman with 85 caps (and 26 goals!) to his name with the Oranje. "I think it makes it even the expectation higher because of the transfer window we had and the players that were already at the club. If you keep winning games, the pressure just gets higher and higher but we all agree that we can do better! And even though we can do better, we still manage to be first! That's definitely a good thing, and if it's getting better, it's also more dangerous for other teams!"
Wijnaldum's next chance to shine for Les Rouge et Bleu should come in Sunday night's crunch Ligue 1 Uber Eats Round 18 clash against a resurgent AS Monaco at the Parc des Princes.
