Munich (Germany) (AFP)

"Small, I dreamed very big ..." Behind a soft voice and a youthful air, Michaël Cuisance conceals high ambitions, as the young French medium explains in an interview with AFP: sign at Bayern Munich, where he played little, was not a "risk" but a "dream".

This summer, this promising midfielder (20 years old) which was slowly maturing in Mönchengladbach joined the great Bayern. A little to everyone's surprise: the "Rekordmeister" usually targets already accomplished stars.

Why then, when you are not even an international hope, take the risk of coming to Munich, where the competition in the middle is called Joshua Kimmich, Corentin Tolisso or Philippe Coutinho?

"For me it was not a risk, it was a dream", calmly answers the player passed by the youth teams of Nancy. "I think I have the qualities to impose myself. It is clear that I arrive young and that it will take time, but we must not give up, we must fight. And after, the victory will be still more beautiful..."

- "A career at Ribéry ..." -

In his words, two words keep coming back: "dream", and "pride". Dream of a career at the highest level and pride of the path already accomplished, since his departure from Nancy where, at 17, he had been put on the bench for six months for having refused to sign a contract.

A few months later, he started out pro at Mönchengladbach in 2017, at just 18 years old.

But this season, his debut in Munich is difficult: in six months, he was entitled to three bouts of matches in the last 20 minutes, in all and for all.

"I have known worse, he says, the difficulty, I know it, I am in my element. (...) This is how we grow, we become a man humanely too, and that "we also become a great player."

Since his childhood in Strasbourg, Cuisance has had a clear vision of its future. "As for me, it's stability that I'm looking for, that's why I came to Bayern. If you can make your whole career at Bayern, you do it, at Ribéry, that makes you dream ...".

- The Zidane "reference" -

Franck Ribéry, a model, left exactly when Cuisance arrived, after 13 years of collecting titles and being acclaimed by fans of the club. "I didn't really talk to him, but just seeing his career and how he is greeted at Bayern when he returns, it's a dream, it's a legend," breathes Cuisance.

His youthful idol, however, is another legend. Zinedine Zidane, whom he regards as "a great reference ..."

For the time being, he is progressing day by day in training. "I really have to compliment him," said his coach Hansi Flick, "he has made progress with which we are very pleased."

"Here you can only learn and grow, confirms Cuisance, you are among the great players, you learn from them every day and from their mentality."

And to repeat, with the assurance that passion gives: "Frankly I am proud of myself, of how I work everyday and how I got there, even if I still have a lot to work, I am aware ... "

- "I got nothing for free" -

Entirely focused on football, this tall, slender blonde (1.81 m, 75 kg) has little to say about his life off the pitch: "I am a very calm boy, I am young but I like to have my peace of mind. After training I go home, I rest with my dog, and that's it ... "

He just admits that he sometimes likes to share a fishing trip with a few teammates, including his compatriot Lucas Hernandez.

His family, who still lives in Strasbourg, remains for him the pillar on which he relies: "My parents were super important, I can never thank them enough", he says, "but you have to find yourself . I got nothing for free, I always fought for everything and I will fight even more. "

Passed by all the French youth selections, Michaël Cuisance is not impatient to discover the Espoirs, the antechamber of team A: "It will come", he wants to believe. "It is clear that at the end of the season there is the Olympic Games. It makes everyone dream, even (Kylian) Mbappé it makes you dream. We cannot force fate but we will do everything to go there. .. "

© 2020 AFP