Boubakary Soumare’s time at Leicester perhaps hasn’t set the world alight so far, but the French midfielder is certainly keen to put that right.
The 23-year-old is a product of the Paris Saint-Germain academy and went on to make eight appearances for the club’s B team before joining Lille.
The 18-year-old defensive midfielder made his professional appearance there, and went on to make 112 games for the club.
Soumare was so influential that he made 43 appearances during his last season as a club player, helping Lille win the Ligue 1 title.
Despite preparing for the opportunity to defend their French title and compete in the Champions League, the midfielder completed a move worth an estimated £17million to Leicester that summer, a deal he describes as ‘flattering’.
Talk to talkSPORT.com, he said: “The reason for choosing Leicester was that I was aware that they’d been following me and had shown a lot of interest in me as a player for quite a while during my time at Lille and so it was almost like a logical conclusion.
“We had talks, these came to fruition and I was pleased to sign for Leicester.
“As I say, they’d shown a lot of interest and I was flattered. It was very flattering the way that they conducted their business, the way in which they had followed my career and my performances and so it was the right thing to do.”
Soumare’s first season at the club was a tricky one after being limited to just 12 starts in the Premier League.
“On a personal level it was a real learning curve of a season for me. I learned both on the field and off the field,” Soumare explained.
“There was some disappointments as you always want to play more as a player.
“As a footballer you want to be on the field for longer but in that regard, I’m playing more regularly this season and from a personal point of view things are looking up very much this time around.”
Due to a lack of playing time, there was intense transfer speculation about a possible move from King Power Stadium for Soumare.
Monaco was reportedly close to signing the player. Rennes, Roma Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest and Nottingham Forest were also interested in a move. However, Brendan Rodgers disclosed late in the summer, that Soumare had changed his mind about a possible move to a different way, much to the delight the Leicester boss.
According to the 23 year-old, moving away is not his first choice.
He said: “First and foremost, I didn’t sign for this club just to play for one season.
“There might have been a bit of noise and speculation in the media but I always kind of thought of my first season as being, not settling in for the whole season, but getting used to the English league maybe.
“That happens a lot and then in the second season really hit the ground running.
“As soon as pre-season started I came back very, very determined to work hard from minute one so that I would be ready and in the manager’s plans to put in a great series of performances all season.
“As I’ve said before, I spoke to the manager because there was talk of maybe clubs in Italy, France and even England being interested in me, but I was focused on my second season and Leicester and wanting to do well.
“I said to the manager that while I’m here at the club you can rest assured that you’ll be getting 100 per cent from me in terms of performances in training and in matches.”
Soumare has now proven his worth at the King Power Stadium, after a long period of speculation.
However, with Leicester struggling near the bottom of the table, the midfield has insisted the focus for the coming weeks is about getting the Foxes’ season back on track.
Soumare explained: “Obviously it’s not the kind of start that we would have wanted.
“No one wants to be bottom of the table and what we’re all focusing on now is working as hard as we can in every training session and working as a group to put Leicester back into the position that they deserve to be which is higher up the league.
“As a club we recognize that we’re not where we want to be in the league, but personally it’s like I’m another person.
“I think that it was kind of a learning curve last season and I feel like I know everything that I need to know about the English game and I’m up to speed and really enjoying my football.”
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