Presnel Kimpembe, 25-year-old defender of Paris Saint-Germain and the French team, answered beIN SPORTS questions before the Blues entered Euro 2020 (this Tuesday against Germany). The player trained in Paris has returned to his career with the selection and his state of mind.
???? #EuroShow
⚽ @ kimpembe_3 confided in beIN SPORTS!
???? He evokes the Toulon Tournament, his debut in the French team, his first selection, his relationship to pressure …
???? “For me, it was a crazy thing” pic.twitter.com/vcQSzwFhJT— beIN SPORTS (@beinsports_FR) June 11, 2021
Kimpembe “But I love it, it’s one of the first times that I really felt the pressure. “
The Toulon tournament in 2015 (Espoirs festival), how important is it in my career?
It was important for me, it was my first international tournament in selection. It’s a tournament that has helped me to be pushed to the top.
Did the coach say I didn’t want to shoot? Is this the first time that I have been considered a very high level player?
Yes. It is a defining moment. The team was running, but I played every game. I felt good and I felt the confidence of the coach. I managed to give it back. He succeeded in valuing me. I felt it right away. I struggled in the past, but with perseverance you can do what you want.
My first selection in A, I thought to myself what?
To be honest, I don’t understand a thing. I was playing in reserve at PSG that weekend. I remember it like it was yesterday. We were at the table, I can feel my phone vibrating a lot but we can’t use it at the table. But the coach comes and he says he has good news, with a player who will find the castle (de Clairefontaine, meeting place of the Blues), it is Presnel. Then I see on my phone that I have been called. I had a lump in my stomach, I had the pressure. I told myself it was too early. But I love it, it’s one of the first times that I really felt the pressure. But after 2 days I felt better.
I was more afraid of that than important matches with PSG?
Talking with the coach was crazy for me. You arrive, you are young, you only play professionally from time to time. It was crazy.
Kimpembe “Obviously it was hard. “
But it took me a year and a half before playing my first match for the Blues? Was it horribly long?
Obviously, it was long. Everyone knows it. I know it. But now, it was also a way for me to show the coach that I had the right mentality. Obviously it was hard. I looked around, and I wondered “who here hasn’t played for a year and a half?” (Smile). Perhaps the guards, and otherwise no one. Obviously it’s hard. I wondered why I wasn’t playing, why I was waiting. I have always respected the coach’s choices, to wait. I know that at some point it’s going to happen.
Wasn’t I scared for my first game?
No. In a match, I grew up like that, I don’t have any pressure. Than the positive one, because I’m excited to play. But the one that tells you to be careful, that you can’t do this or that, I don’t have it. Once on the ground, it’s open bar.
Kimpembe “Life goes fast, one way or the other. “
The match against Denmark in the World Cup, still no pressure?
No, no pressure (smile). I grew up like that, maybe it was my parents’ education. This is something normal.
It was easy ?
No, but no pressure.
All this in 6 years?
Life goes fast, one way or the other.
