A fashion influencer for the Blues for some time, Jules Koundé has mainly established himself as the right-back for the French team, which he will return to for the Nations League after a successful Euro-2024.
The Barça player played every second of the European Championship in Germany, where he even converted his penalty against Portugal (0-0, 5-3 on penalties) in the quarter-finals.
The chief “sapper” of the French players, whose dazzling outfits when he arrived at the Château de Clairefontaine were widely commented on on social networks, has become a regular.
In Germany, he extinguished the competition from Jonathan Clauss or Benjamin Pavard, 2018 world champion in this position.
He will probably not play the two Nations League matches, Italy on Friday at the Parc des Princes and Belgium on Monday in Lyon, Didier Deschamps having announced a rotation. But this summer he has silenced the critics, and is showing himself to be a good sport with his detractors.
– “I have always been confident” –
“I think that there was also a misunderstanding on the part of people outside of what the coach could ask of me and also of the player that I was,” he explained at a press conference from the Yvelines training center.
“I’m not a right-back by training,” the former central defender emphasizes. Didier Deschamps had publicly reminded him of this by repeating that he was selecting him to play on the wing, not in hinge.
“Sometimes, we can put up a few barriers for ourselves,” Koundé recalls. “It’s no secret that it’s a position that took me a while to get to grips with.”
But “I was always confident that with work, it would come, that it was not a natural position for me and that even if I work a lot, it is something that would take time”, insists the former Girondin.
He worked hard. Then in January, Xavi, his coach at Barça, also installed him as a right-back. After a difficult start, Koundé convinced and made himself indispensable, in “Blaugrana” as in Blue.
He has made progress in particular in his offensive contribution. But “the priority, and what the coach (Deschamps) has always asked of me, is the defensive part”.
– “I always liked to dress up” –
However, he doesn’t set any limits when it comes to clothing. His looks are all the rage and are much talked about.
“Jules started a bit strong on this path” of clothing, laughed Ibrahima Konaté, one of his competitors in the field, before the Euro. “Now, we’re going to try to catch up with him, to dethrone him little by little.”
“It’s no secret. I like to dress well, I like fashion, I like clothes and everything that goes with it,” smiles Koundé.
“I have always liked to dress up and be neat when I leave the house. Even to go and do completely mundane things, like buying bread or going shopping,” continues the former Sevillian.
On Monday, he arrived at Clairefontaine wearing a chocolate and black tank top streaked with sky-blue and white brushstrokes, with a touch of red.
Dressing classy “is part of the disconnection that I’m looking for, it’s one of the things I like to do in my free time. Doing research, reading up on it. It’s part of my passions,” he sums up.
He knows well “that now, it’s a meeting awaited by many people. It often gets people talking, I see it on social networks in particular, even the media are interested in it. It’s cool, it’s also a little competition between us. I like it, I find it healthy. I enjoy doing it, I feel good in my clothes”. And at the right-back position of the Blues.
eba/cpb/
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