Leverkusen (Germany) (AFP)

A defector from Paris SG, the French winger Moussa Diaby who has dazzled Germany for three months congratulates himself in an interview with AFP for having chosen Leverkusen, "a good club for crossing a course and taking it to the next level".

On Thursday, this pocket attacker will play the Europa League's knockout stages against FC Porto (9:00 p.m. / 8:00 p.m. GMT), and will once again carry the hopes of Bayer, who failed in the Champions League group stage against the giants Juventus and Atlético Madrid.

Leaving PSG in the summer of 2019 to discover only 20 years ago another country and another championship was not easy. But the international hopes assume its choice.

"I think that for advancement, to become a great player, Bayer Leverkusen is a good step. It is a good club to cross a course," he said.

Germany is under the spell. "Diaby is like a predicted storm, which we cannot manage to stem," writes Kicker magazine, the German football Bible. "When it collapses, this whip-fire leaves behind clueless defenders and amazed spectators."

Like his model Lionel Messi! He appreciates "for his way of playing, his intelligence of the game, his way of always being decisive ...". What do they have in common? Both are attack animators, capable of lightning accelerations over the first ten meters, and both measure ... 1.70 m.

- Beginnings on the bench -

This raw talent has already shown great maturity in his career choices. Despite 34 appearances in the first team at Paris SG, he quickly understood that he would be helmed by the stars of the club and that he needed playing time.

"Leverkusen was an interesting project, the team qualified for the Champions League, with the prospect of playing big matches against big teams", he explains when asked what could have led this pure kid from Paris to the banks of the Rhine.

In the championship, the Bayer occupies an interesting 5th place, just two points from the fourth Mönchengladbach.

Born in Paris to Malian parents, a discreet but determined boy, Diaby does not forget where he comes from: "I am the last in a family of eight, he reveals, my parents transmitted to me the values ​​of mentality, they told me that you always had to work to have something, that talent was not enough (...) and that one day I would become a great player. "

His arrival in Germany was not easy. Coach Peter Bosz left him on the bench for almost three months, the time to adapt and get a bit of control over his environment.

But Diaby didn't give up: "I knew how to work in training, to show what I was capable of, and the coach gave me a chance to play. I took my chance and I knew make good performances ", he says with the top of his 3 goals and 2 assists for three months.

- Tuchel did not agree -

Thomas Tuchel, his coach at Paris SG, did not want to let him go: "It was rather I who made the choice to leave", says Diaby, "he was not necessarily in agreement, but c it was up to me to make a choice, and he respected it. "

"He told me that the Bundesliga was going to be a very good championship for me and that maybe we would speak the same language when we met again," he adds with a smile.

For the moment, Diaby does not master German, but he has easy contact and quickly integrated into the locker room. Jonathan Tah, the German international with Ivorian roots, French speaking, served him as "big brother" upon his arrival.

"Moussa is a very introverted person. At first he even looked shy," says Tah: "Now he's opened up, but it's still not a big mouth, on the contrary a nice boy, very down to earth. "

"Moussa is a very friendly, lively young man. He exudes joy and energy," added Leverkusen sports director Simon Rolfes.

At the end of the season, like all the Espoirs, Diaby obviously dreams of the Tokyo Olympics with France.

But when asked about his international ambitions, he remains modest: "For the moment I am international Espoirs (U21) and I am very happy to be there ... I still have work to arrive in the team of France A ", he said only.

© 2020 AFP