Samuel Mbangula is currently exploding at Juventus, but how come such a talent hasn’t been given a chance in Belgium? The U21 international looks back on his career.
Samuel Mbangula appeared in Tubize on Tuesday in front of the press, ahead of the Espoirs’ match in Kazakhstan for the Euro U21 qualifiers. And if, now, he naturally attracts attention after his thunderous start to the season at Juventus, he has not had as much luck in Belgium.
At the age of 16, he threw himself into the foreign bath and joined the Old Lady. “It’s true that it’s young, but when you have a dream and you have the opportunity to make it come true, you jump right in,” Mbangula begins. “I’m a determined person. But I wouldn’t say that I didn’t doubt, doubting is natural and is a good thing because it allows you to be focused on the objective to be accomplished.”
Mbangula did not hesitate to leave Belgium because things were not going as planned. “In Bruges, things were not going well in terms of my schooling. I went from 6th grade in French to secondary school in Dutch and I don’t need to draw you a picture, it was not as good as I had hoped,” he explains. Samuel Mbangula is French-speaking, and while he understood our colleagues’ questions in Dutch, he felt more comfortable answering them in French.
Juventus, like Cristiano Ronaldo
“What’s more, in terms of football, I didn’t get the opportunities I was hoping for either. I signed for Anderlecht to be closer to my family and to make my schooling easier,” continues the Juve winger. That’s where the Italian club would come looking for him, and RSCA would not keep him.
© photonews
“Did RSCA make me big salary offers? You’d have to ask my agent (smiles). No, let’s say that the club didn’t make every effort to prevent me from leaving, and that suited me fine,” admits Mbangula. Juventus attracted him for one reason, among others: it was Cristiano Ronaldo’s club at the time.
If I can have a tenth of Cristiano Ronaldo’s career, I’m in!
“Yes, that played a role in my choice,” he admits. “In terms of professionalism, Ronaldo is one of my idols. Being able to say that I was going to play for CR7’s club was something. Having even a tenth of his career, you sign. I briefly crossed paths with him… as a ball boy (laughs). But I’m already very happy about it.”
Today’s Samuel Mbangula has little in common with the one who left Belgium. “It’s true that I was presented as nonchalant, and I corrected that. Some will say that I still am, but that’s just my way of being, I’m not at all on the pitch anymore. When you arrive at Juve, you have no choice, you have to erase that.”
