Wanyama: Relishing prospect of facing 'idol' Yaya Toure

Johnny Phillips catches up with Southampton midfielder Victor Wanyama just days after his house was burgled whilst he was playing at Villa Park...

Not a lot has gone wrong for Victor Wanyama this season. Restored to the starting line-up, with the freedom to get forward and bring some valuable goal-scoring to the team, he had every reason to be happy with his lot.

But on Monday night, following Southampton’s 1-1 draw at Aston Villa, he was shocked to learn that he had been burgled whilst playing in the game. The robbers completely ransacked his house, as well as helping themselves to tens of thousands of pounds worth of valuables.

Victor Wanyama is putting a recent burglary behind him to concentrate on facing champions Manchester City Victor Wanyama is putting a recent burglary behind him to concentrate on facing champions Manchester City

But it wasn’t the material loss that the 23 year old felt most. “I lost a lot of things but the most important were the football memories,” he explained. “I lost many souvenir shirts of my Champions League football and also some of opponents like Iniesta and Pogba. If anyone sees them being put on somewhere like eBay then can I ask they get in touch with me at the club. I would love to get them back, they bring very important memories for me.”

Our interview had originally been planned at the player’s home, but we relocated to a nearby hotel whilst the insurers went to work calculating what had been stolen. The 23 year old Kenyan placed particular importance on his Iniesta match shirt which he received after Celtic’s famous Champions’ League victory over Barcelona at Celtic Park two years ago.

Wanyama tussles with Andres Iniesta in 2012

Wanyama scored in that match which was beamed live to his homeland, where his proud parents watched on. He comes from a football family; his three brothers are professional players and his Dad also played the game back home.

His childhood memories are of animated discussions about football, which his father always seemed to win. “We would watch a game on television and maybe an argument would start about football. My Dad had won some medals playing football and would always point to them in his cabinet and say to us, ‘What have you achieved, what have you done? Look, my medals are there. You have to wait until you have won some then you can talk to me,’ and it made me want to go out and win something in the game. It’s down to my Dad that I have been able to make it as a professional.”

The success they have had so far this season has had some observers talking about Southampton as contenders to qualify for the Champions League. That is still an unlikely scenario and the Kenyan was keen to play down.

“We wanted to prove everyone wrong because nobody believed in us, but I think working hard is the real reason we are where we are,” said Wanyama. “I didn’t think it would be like this as it was shocking to see so many players leave the club but then as the players came in over the summer I knew we could do better. If we can improve from last season’s position that will be great. As players we know there is talk about us and we love the challenge. Anything is possible I suppose.”

Southampton’s next three fixtures will go a long way to making up punters’ minds about their Champions League qualification chances. Manchester City travel to St Mary’s and they make the trip to the Emirates before Louis van Gaal’s United head to the south coast. Come through those three fixtures with a positive return and it would be fair to judge Koeman’s men as the real deal.

First up is the live Super Sunday clash against Manchester City and Wanyama is relishing the opportunity of facing one of his idols in the game.

“Yes it’s one of the biggest tests we could have,” he added. “It’s a game I’m looking forward to because Yaya Toure will be playing and he’s someone I look up to. He was one of my role models so it’ll be a nice thing coming face to face with him. Back home it will be a big, big game. People will get together and be wearing scarves and shirts of both teams. Southampton aren’t a small team in Kenya anymore.”

You can see our feature with Victor Wanyama on Soccer Saturday this weekend and watch Southampton v Manchester City live on Super Sunday. Coverage from St Mary’s starts at 12:30pm, Sky Sports 1HD