Xavier Mbuyamba has moved from top club to top club in recent years. The defender, trained at MVV Maastricht, was about to go to Chelsea in the summer of 2019, but ultimately chose Barcelona due to a transfer restriction at the Londoners. Last summer he made the switch to Chelsea and he hopes to be able to make the step to the first team soon. Mbuyamba learned at Barcelona what it was like to be on the field with stars such as Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann and could count on the support of Frenkie de Jong in Spain.
Mbuyamba himself also blinked twice when he was on the field with Messi for the first time. “It is very strange to suddenly be on the field with him”, he says in an extensive interview with the NOS. “The first time I saw him, I just asked for a photo. I had only been at the club for a week. He doesn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Spanish at the time. He agreed to take a photo and that was it. ” Nevertheless, it quickly began to get used to the only nineteen-year-old Mbuyamba, who never made his debut in the main force of Barcelona. “Messi also sometimes jumps the ball off his shoe,” he says.
In addition to Messi, the central defender was also on the training field with De Jong and was received by his fellow countryman in his first months. “Frenkie sometimes took me aside in the dressing room and said I just had to do my thing and play for Barcelona for a reason,” said Mbuyamba, the other two Barçaplayers immediately showed that he was there. “I gave Antoine Griezmann and Nélson Semedo a panna. They probably didn’t like that. No matter how big you are as a player, you should always stay normal. In the end, there were fewer chances for me at Barcelona than I had hoped.”
Due to the limited opportunities at Barcelona, Mbuyamba decided to make the switch to Chelsea last summer. There, the man is still waiting for his first official game in the main force, partly due to a serious injury. Mbuyamba, who made his debut for the Under-23 in April, is not yet with his head in the A-selection. It has not yet come from a conversation with Thomas Tuchel. “No, the first team stays very much in their own bubble. There is also little overlap of players between the first and Under 23. My goal is to train with the first team in the preparation next season, I hope to hear that soon. . “
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