Niang: 'No Leicester City regrets'

By Football Italia staff

M’Baye Niang has no regrets about turning down Leicester City, praises Milan teammate Carlos Bacca and looks back on that Nou Camp upright.

The striker sat down with La Gazzetta dello Sport for a lengthy interview and you can read more from that here.

“The Premier League could’ve been the right football for me and I hope one day it will be. Playing there is my dream, as it suits my style of play,” said the French forward.

“I could’ve been there twice already. The first was when I chose Milan, even if Caen had already accepted offers from Arsenal and Everton.

“The second was in January, two or three days before the derby. My agent called and said Leicester had made an offer to Milan, but the club didn’t want me to go.

“Sinisa Mihajlovic also told me I would stay and score in the derby. So I did and I have no regrets, even after Leicester won the Premier League title. After all, I risked being Jamie Vardy’s alternate. They are so full of money there, they can pay €20m and then not bother to play you.

“I wasn’t very good in school, except in physics and that was only because my teacher was absolutely beautiful. She made me want to apply myself and even study. If I’d had her in every class, maybe I wouldn’t have become a football player.

“Now I’d only study to improve my English. Not for the Premier League, because now all their Coaches are Italian!”

Niang is finding his feet at last in Serie A and that is partly thanks to his rapport with Milan teammate Bacca.

“If Carlos is in front of goal, I stop running, because there won’t be a rebound. That’s going in the net. And if I’m running on goal, I know that if I don’t score, then he will.

“He gives you so many options, defends inside our own box and if I reach the by-line he’ll always run into my zone to allow me to get back in time.

“It’s rubbish to say he doesn’t play for the team. It’s true our pressing starts from him and if he doesn’t then we struggle, but Carlos has scored five goals to Mauro Icardi’s six with fewer attempts, so he wins. If we give him more service, he’ll score more goals.”

Niang failed to score a single Serie A goal in his first stint at Milan and had some legendary misses, none more so than when he hit the woodwork in a Champions League trip to Barcelona.

“I remember thinking it was God who decided I should hit the post and go out. If Barcelona-Milan is replayed tomorrow, maybe this time He’ll choose for that ball to hit the post and bounce back inwards.

“Maybe the decision was made for my own good. Perhaps I would’ve got big-headed scoring such an important goal at that time.

“I pray every day, just for two to three minutes, not more. My parents never threatened me if I didn’t pray, so it is more a desire than a feeling of duty. I never pray to win before a game, otherwise I’d need another 20 people to pray for that. I just ask not to get hurt.

“Without your health, you have no work. If you have your health and work, then you need nothing more in life.”

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