Michy Batshuayi overcame a difficult childhood to join Chelsea and play for the Belgium national team
Anyone who sees Michy Batshuayi flashing a broad smile as he celebrates a goal cannot imagine the reality of the Belgian striker, who faces Poland in the Nations League on Wednesday.
Raised in the Molenbeek neighborhood, home to the largest immigrant community in Brussels, the player had a humble childhood.
As he did not have access to many entertainment options, he spent hours playing soccer with the neighbors of the neighborhood, and learned as a child to take the blows that life and defenders dealt him.
“My game comes from the street, when I was little. In Belgium, a lot of kids play futsal these days, but my friends and I didn’t have a pitch to play on. So we played on the streets, especially in the parks,” he said, in an interview with So Foot magazine.
In street soccer, the rules are quite different from those of field soccer…
“The games were very intense. The boys and the older ones played mixed, and it almost always ended in a fight. There was never a referee, nothing like that. It always ended in a fight,” he recalled.
“Many times the players of the other team threatened you and even the older players of my team punished me with slaps if I missed a goal or allowed a score when I was playing goalkeeper,” he said.
In 2003, the striker was discovered by a talent scout from the RFC Evere and played in RUSA Schaerbeek, FC Brussels y Anderlecht until it exploded in the Standard League in 2008.
In the Belgian squad he was sponsored by the Brazilian defender Kanu (ex-Victoria), who considered him almost like a son.
“He comes from a family in the Congo, he arrived shy and I decided to sponsor him. I began to take care of him and give him advice, he has grown a lot. He always sends me messages, we talk and he wants to know when I am going to visit him. That is priceless,” he said in an interview with ESPN.
Promoted to the first team in 2011, at the age of 18, the boy gradually conquered his space and exploded once and for all in the 2013/14 season, when he scored 21 goals in 34 games and finished runner-up in the Belgian Championship. At the same time, he received his first call-up to the Belgium under-21 team.
“It’s funny that he comes from a very poor family and he didn’t have his front teeth. So when he smiled he always put his hand to his mouth, because he was embarrassed, poor thing. After the club paid for the treatment for him, now he smiles to everything, it’s impressive, anything laughs and shows its new teeth. I started calling it ‘Laughs'”, jokes the Brazilian.
“It’s a phenomenon. I always said I would play in a big team,” he concludes.
In August 2014, the Olympic Marseille signed Batshuayi for £4.5m. In French football he continued to evolve and finished the 2014/15 season with 23 goals in 50 games for the team.
At the same time he joined the Belgian team, he caught the attention of Chelsea, who bought him for €39m in 2016.
However, with the Blues, he could not show the same potential: in total there were 25 goals in 77 games. The English squad decided to transfer it to Borussia Dortmund, Valencia y Crystal Palacealthough also without much success.
Last season he was on loan at Besiktas in Turkey, where he scored 14 goals in 42 games. The player, who has a contract with Chelsea until the middle of next year, still does not have his future defined and in the Summer Market he could have a new assignment.
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