Olivier Boscagli has had a difficult period at PSV, but the 23-year-old Monegask has now become an indispensable force in Roger Schmidt’s team. Success certainly did not come to him, the defender / midfielder reveals in conversation with The Telegraph. “Perhaps I came in with a little too much self-confidence as a purchase. My mistake ”, concludes Boscagli almost two years after his arrival in Eindhoven.
With high expectations, Boscagli hoped to cause a furore in the left-back position at PSV: the place where then coach Mark van Bommel could use the necessary reinforcement. “But I turned out not to be a left back and that was disappointing”, the former defender of OGC Nice, among others, looks back on his early days at PSV. Partly due to an excellent performance on behalf of Nice in a won exhibition match with the Eindhoven team (2-3), Boscagli was attracted, but in the end he only made twelve Eredivisie appearances in the 2019/20 season.
“There are many reasons why it didn’t work out last season, but I am not a boy looking back. All in all, it became the reason to stay. I thought: what I am is not what you have seen of me in the last year, “Boscagli looks back.” My agent asked in the summer what I wanted to do: ‘Either you take the easy way and go back to France, or you do everything you can to succeed at PSV. ‘”In the end he chose the latter option and decided to work on his’ flaws’ in his hometown Monaco in preparation for the current season.
“I tried to get stronger with a personal trainer and worked a lot in the loose sand, because I am not the fastest player. I want to be able to anticipate quickly, so I have to be agile ”, said Boscagli, who also indicates that for various reasons he draws a lot of inspiration from the game of Dante, Thiago Silva and Sergio Ramos. The defender / midfielder admits not always to have had the best mentality. “I’m also a typical Frenchman: I was a lazy boy. That didn’t always help me at the beginning of my career,” he concludes with a laugh.