Shaqiri Names Ribéry as Best Teammate Ever

Xherdan Shaqiri regained pleasure in playing, at his home in Basel, after having bouringué for several years. This is how since 2009 and his arrival in the contingent of the first team of FC Basel, he experienced six different championships and seven clubs: the Swiss Super League (Basel), the German Bundesliga (Bayern Munich), the Italian Serie (Inter Milan), the English Premier League (Stoke City, Liverpool), the French league (Lyon) and the Major League (Chicago Fire).

The Gazzetta dello Sport gave him the floor for a long time In an interview published Wednesday. Shaqiri returns in particular to his arrival at Inter Milan, in 2015. “It was the Inter de Mancini,” recalls Shaqiri. He called me and convinced me in five minutes. He promised me that I was at the center of his project. But I didn’t play much. I may have been reduced by the physical concerns that accompanied me throughout my career, but I find that I would have deserved more playing time. That being, I had arrived in one of the weakest Inter teams in the past fifteen years. ”

Called to quote the best coach he has known, Shaqiri does not hesitate: “Pep Guardiola (Editor’s note: which he rubbed shoulders with Bayern Munich from 2013 to 2015). The best in tactics and organization. He tried to revolutionize German football, especially that of Bayern, and I think he succeeded. And then, I don’t forget Ottmar Hitzfeld (Editor’s note: Swiss coach from 2008 to 2014). He is an authentic man to whom I am very attached, a coach of another era. ”

Where Xherdan Shaqiri surprises, it is when our colleague from Gazzetta dello Sport asks him who was the strongest of all the players he rubbed shoulders through his career. “It is difficult for me to cite only a name, I played with so many great players so different from each other … But if I had to choose only one, I would say Franck Ribéry. He played at the same position as me and he impressed me from the first training. Outside the field, he was serene and smiling, but on the ground, it was a fury. And then, what a dribbling, what a quality! Frank is one of the best people I met during my career. ”

Xherdan Shaqiri has no regrets when he looks in the retro. Except, perhaps, that of having been too often injured. “Who knows what career I would have had without my physical problems?” He wonders. In recent years has been really difficult. But now, in Switzerland, I feel good and happy again. ”

And he does not intend to put an end to his career as soon as it is. “I don’t think about it,” he confirms. I am 33 years old and I still want to conquer the world. I always want to win and still know lots of satisfaction. I want to prove that I am still a crazy genius. Here in Basel, I found motivation and smile. Last season showed that I still had the qualities necessary to make the difference. Yes, I still have a lot to give. “