The 28-year-old, often miscast as a midfield destroyer, is the creative key in Sevilla’s push for glory in La Liga and the Champions League. Leicester beware
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| Steven N’Zonzi has blossomed in Seville. ‘We enjoy having the ball, passing,’ he says. ‘Life here is good, the people are really chilled.’ Photograph: Seville Football Club |
“I’m just me,” Steven N’Zonzi says. It is a simple enough statement, delivered softly; obvious too, unremarkable. And yet there is something in it, something in the way he says it and how long it takes him to say it. Ask a silly question, get a sensible answer – one that, unpacked, is more eloquent than it first appears. Not long ago, one of Spain’s sports newspapers compared him to Patrick Vieira and it was not the first: it is a line that goes all the way back to his arrival at Blackburn Rovers eight years ago. So, Steven, are you like the former Arsenal midfielder?
The pause is prolonged, it also feels a little awkward. “I don’t know,” he eventually says, which feels like a way of saying no. “It’s the same position. Physically we are quite similar because we are tall players. But he was more physical than me in his style. He was stronger than me. He was good technically as well, but I like to pass the ball.” There’s another pause before he adds: “Vieira is a legend; I’m just me.”
And there it is. In a way, much of the conversation has been about this: about who or what N’Zonzi is and who people think he is, about perception and adaptation, evolution, environment and education, finding his place and himself. In Seville it feels like he has done just that, at 28. Who, then, is Steven N’Kemboanza Mike Christopher N’Zonzi?
How about the best player in Spain, for a start? It is no huge exaggeration: Lionel Messi aside, there is certainly a case to be made. January’s player of the month ambles across the carpark at the José Ramón Cisneros Palacios training ground, out by the motorway where builders are constructing a B-team stadium and old shopping trolleys are loaded with laundry. It is warm, as it is most mornings, Barcelona have just been destroyed by Paris Saint-Germain and as N’Zonzi approaches a coach sees him. “Matuidi? Boo! N’Zonzi? Yay!” he cheers, thumbs down, thumbs up. He means it, too.
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There is a reason Sevilla recently extended N’Zonzi’s contract, increasing his buyout clause – although they did not disclose by how much. It had stood at €30m, but that came to seem cheap and clubs had come to enquire. Barcelona saw an alternative to Sergio Busquets, while Juventus, Arsenal and Manchester City were reportedly interested. The question is inevitable, especially as he has been talking about how much he likes it here with the sunshine, the football and the laidback lifestyle: would he really go back?
“The most important thing is the challenge. You are not on holiday: if not, I would play in Miami,” N’Zonzi says laughing. “Well, there is no team in Miami but you know what I’m saying. It’s a really short career so if there’s a good challenge you compromise. But I prefer to focus on what I’m doing. Newspapers say a lot of things about a lot of players and you never know if it’s true. If I start thinking too much I’m going to lose my focus and won’t play as well.”
He is playing well now, admitting that this may be the best season of his career; certainly one of them. After Sevilla defeated Real Madrid, Jorge Sampaoli, his manager, called him an “octopus”, tentacles everywhere. “Long legs, big legs,” N’Zonzi laughs.
Yet while it is true that he covers the whole pitch, striding through Freddie Kanouté-style to score, as he did against Atlético Madrid, or dropping deep to protect the defence, that is not it; that is not why they want him. When you see N’Zonzi between the centre-backs it is usually the start of a move, not the end of one; his game is construction, not destruction. His body deceives, insists Sevilla’s sporting director Ramón “Monchi” Rodríguez. Now at last everyone sees it.
“Steven’s a player who has to continually fight against his appearance,” Monchi says. “His profile’s that of an eminently physical player, fight and strength, when although it’s true he has those qualities his principle characteristic is his use of the ball and technical quality. That’s why we signed him and where he makes the difference.” No one in Spain has completed more passes; in Europe only Marco Verratti, Thiago Alcantara, Julian Weigl, and David Alaba have.
The pause is prolonged, it also feels a little awkward. “I don’t know,” he eventually says, which feels like a way of saying no. “It’s the same position. Physically we are quite similar because we are tall players. But he was more physical than me in his style. He was stronger than me. He was good technically as well, but I like to pass the ball.” There’s another pause before he adds: “Vieira is a legend; I’m just me.”
And there it is. In a way, much of the conversation has been about this: about who or what N’Zonzi is and who people think he is, about perception and adaptation, evolution, environment and education, finding his place and himself. In Seville it feels like he has done just that, at 28. Who, then, is Steven N’Kemboanza Mike Christopher N’Zonzi?
How about the best player in Spain, for a start? It is no huge exaggeration: Lionel Messi aside, there is certainly a case to be made. January’s player of the month ambles across the carpark at the José Ramón Cisneros Palacios training ground, out by the motorway where builders are constructing a B-team stadium and old shopping trolleys are loaded with laundry. It is warm, as it is most mornings, Barcelona have just been destroyed by Paris Saint-Germain and as N’Zonzi approaches a coach sees him. “Matuidi? Boo! N’Zonzi? Yay!” he cheers, thumbs down, thumbs up. He means it, too.
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There is a reason Sevilla recently extended N’Zonzi’s contract, increasing his buyout clause – although they did not disclose by how much. It had stood at €30m, but that came to seem cheap and clubs had come to enquire. Barcelona saw an alternative to Sergio Busquets, while Juventus, Arsenal and Manchester City were reportedly interested. The question is inevitable, especially as he has been talking about how much he likes it here with the sunshine, the football and the laidback lifestyle: would he really go back?
“The most important thing is the challenge. You are not on holiday: if not, I would play in Miami,” N’Zonzi says laughing. “Well, there is no team in Miami but you know what I’m saying. It’s a really short career so if there’s a good challenge you compromise. But I prefer to focus on what I’m doing. Newspapers say a lot of things about a lot of players and you never know if it’s true. If I start thinking too much I’m going to lose my focus and won’t play as well.”
He is playing well now, admitting that this may be the best season of his career; certainly one of them. After Sevilla defeated Real Madrid, Jorge Sampaoli, his manager, called him an “octopus”, tentacles everywhere. “Long legs, big legs,” N’Zonzi laughs.
Yet while it is true that he covers the whole pitch, striding through Freddie Kanouté-style to score, as he did against Atlético Madrid, or dropping deep to protect the defence, that is not it; that is not why they want him. When you see N’Zonzi between the centre-backs it is usually the start of a move, not the end of one; his game is construction, not destruction. His body deceives, insists Sevilla’s sporting director Ramón “Monchi” Rodríguez. Now at last everyone sees it.
“Steven’s a player who has to continually fight against his appearance,” Monchi says. “His profile’s that of an eminently physical player, fight and strength, when although it’s true he has those qualities his principle characteristic is his use of the ball and technical quality. That’s why we signed him and where he makes the difference.” No one in Spain has completed more passes; in Europe only Marco Verratti, Thiago Alcantara, Julian Weigl, and David Alaba have.
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| Steven N’Zonzi has had to fight against the perception that he is a physical, defensive player due to his height. Photograph: Seville Football Club |
It is some leap from the Britannia. Or is it? N’Zonzi does not think so. If it can be hard to look beyond his 6ft 3in frame, loping style, and a list that reads Blackburn Rovers, Stoke City, Sam Allardyce, Tony Pulis; if it is hard to trace a line from there to the Camp Nou, say, it should not be. This was always the way he saw himself, even if others saw him differently. He talks like he now plays: calm, considered, controlled. There is no hurry, long, slim fingers gesturing as he takes his time, carefully explaining his evolution, his sense of place.
“I know myself better than anyone and it was harder to adapt to a team coached by Allardyce or Pulis, because my game when I grew up in France was not a physical game. I was skinny, I was not a player who would tackle and stuff like this, so I had to improve and work a lot. Everyone has always seen me in that type of team and they think because I’m tall it was more my kind of play. But I think I was always more of a passing player,” he says.
Evidence comes from his final year at Stoke, 2014-15, where Mark Hughes brought a shift in style and N’Zonzi was their player of the season. There had even been a suggestion that he could play for England and he admits that he looked into it – “It would have been an opportunity for someone that never played internationally [but] nothing happened because it was impossible” – although there is a sense that his role is one that is underappreciated in England.
“I know myself better than anyone and it was harder to adapt to a team coached by Allardyce or Pulis, because my game when I grew up in France was not a physical game. I was skinny, I was not a player who would tackle and stuff like this, so I had to improve and work a lot. Everyone has always seen me in that type of team and they think because I’m tall it was more my kind of play. But I think I was always more of a passing player,” he says.
Evidence comes from his final year at Stoke, 2014-15, where Mark Hughes brought a shift in style and N’Zonzi was their player of the season. There had even been a suggestion that he could play for England and he admits that he looked into it – “It would have been an opportunity for someone that never played internationally [but] nothing happened because it was impossible” – although there is a sense that his role is one that is underappreciated in England.
“I enjoyed it at Stoke, especially the last season. With Pulis we had a good team but we were more about being strong and physical; with Hughes it was more of a passing game. That is what I like most, so I felt really good. My last season at Stoke I finished really well but I didn’t really see any English team that wanted me. And Sevilla wanted me a lot so this is why I came, naturally.
“Monchi had been watching me a long time, even at Blackburn. He said: ‘We play in the Champions League, you can improve your game, it’s a different league.’” Sevilla had it all, except oatcakes. N’Zonzi laughs. He still speaks to Steven Ireland, Mame Diouf and Marco Arnautovic, and talks fondly of Peter Crouch, the only player he had to look up to, “a nice person who doesn’t take himself too seriously”. “I loved living in England; I was happy. But I love it here too; it’s amazing to wake to clear blue skies most days.”
“Monchi had been watching me a long time, even at Blackburn. He said: ‘We play in the Champions League, you can improve your game, it’s a different league.’” Sevilla had it all, except oatcakes. N’Zonzi laughs. He still speaks to Steven Ireland, Mame Diouf and Marco Arnautovic, and talks fondly of Peter Crouch, the only player he had to look up to, “a nice person who doesn’t take himself too seriously”. “I loved living in England; I was happy. But I love it here too; it’s amazing to wake to clear blue skies most days.”
Not that adaptation was easy. At first, he wondered what he had done. Seville is the hottest city in western Europe and he struggled to cope in that first pre-season, barely able to breathe; he was hospitalised with salmonella; and he was sent off in his first game, receiving a “bizarre” red card. Supporters were not sure, nor were critics. There were doubts, a momentary inclination to depart again. Instead, he adapted.
“It’s very different: technically, tactically – and the referees here …” N’Zonzi laughs. “They don’t let you play as much or as physically as in England. One foul is a yellow card. If you talk in a [certain] way, it’s a yellow card or red. In England they let you play, get annoyed, be physical.”
In Spain, being tall is often a foul and N’Zonzi is tall. “It happened a lot and I didn’t understand why. I would just go and head the ball, use my arms a little bit, and they’d give a foul. You need to adapt; it’s the only way. You adapt to the referees: you’re not going to change the way they are.”
Ultimately the shift suited him. And if six years in the Premier League appeared to be an impediment it was actually an advantage, he says. “I improved tactically in Spain. In England, you are asked to go with the game and stop the opposition playing. Tactically, it was not really high demand. I had to be strong physically, run a lot. In Spain in they ask you to stay in position: ‘When you don’t have the ball, go there, be here.’ But England helped me. It’s about experience, learning. I was lucky to play under different managers with different styles.
“In England, I improved physically as well. I’m not N’Golo Kanté, I’m not a top player, I don’t have that pace, but I did improve because the pace was really intense.” How? You can’t just become quick. N’Zonzi points to his head. “It’s in your mind,” he replies. “You think quicker, make decisions quicker. You can also work in the gym so you have a little bit more muscle: you are not going to be fast, you can’t change your physical possibilities but you can improve a little.”
Few clubs “rescue” and rehabilitate players as Sevilla do. In that first season in Spain, Unai Emery guided him; now Jorge Sampaoli has freed him. There are parallels there between the shift from Pulis to Hughes, he admits. Under Emery, N’Zonzi eventually became a key player, defensive and disciplined; now, under Sampaoli, he is the key player, with Samir Nasri, distributing.
“Sampaoli likes to have the ball and defend really high, pressing to recover it as soon as possible. He wants us to play, to be the protagonists. He does not want us to defend deep and just be strong and compact. He doesn’t like that. He wants to score goals and win.”
N’Zonzi likes it too. “We enjoy having the ball, passing. Pressing for 90 minutes is not easy and you cannot do it, sometimes you have to wait, but it’s fun. When the manager recognises the qualities in players and gives them confidence, you’ve done 60, 70, 80% of the job. Life here is good, the people are really chilled, and you don’t have as much pressure. With that, you can do something great.”
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| Steven N’Zonzi in action for Sevilla against Eibar, challenged by Gonzalo Escalante. Photograph: Aitor Alcalde Colomer/Getty Images |
That’s the hope. Sevilla are third in La Liga – the only team to have beaten Real Madrid this season – and now the question is being asked: can they really win the league? “You never know in life,” N’Zonzi says. “You never know.”
The gap is a long one, the name he fills it with telling: “Leicester” he adds, as if that says it all. Which it kind of does. If ever there was a team whose name says hope, it is Sevilla’s opponents on Wednesday night. If N’Zonzi looks different to those who have not seen him in Spain, what of Leicester City? When he left, they were relegation candidates and, yes, they may be again, but they arrive in Spain as champions. “It was unbelievable what Leicester achieved, incredible,” he says. “They deserved it.”
Could that have happened in Spain? “I have played against teams in England and they are all very good with great, great players but here against Barcelona and Madrid it is very hard. Also, with Leicester’s type of play, I think it would have been harder in Spain. It’s different here.”
It is hard for Sevilla, too. “Over 38 games it is really hard to keep pace [with Madrid and Barcelona]. You have to believe you can win; if not, you don’t play. We have had a very good first half of the season, the most points in Sevilla’s history, but to do that again will be really tough – and for them to drop points too. It’s very complicated.”
“I don’t know if [the Champions League] suits us better, maybe,” N’Zonzi adds. “You can focus on two games and you qualify, then two games, then two games. There are great teams there too but it’s true that we have seen more lower teams reach the final there than in leagues, so ...”
So, first Leicester. “Dangerous,” he says. “It’s only two games and we can’t say: ‘Oh, it’s Leicester; it is going to be easier than if it was a bigger team.’ This is the wrong way to see things, because if they are here then it’s because they deserve to be; they qualified just like us. We are going to have to play hard to beat them. Of course they miss Kanté: he has a lot of energy, he was unbelievable, but they are have very fast players in attack so it’s a different way of playing, dangerous. But the manager will show us how we can change a little bit. We can adapt.”
The gap is a long one, the name he fills it with telling: “Leicester” he adds, as if that says it all. Which it kind of does. If ever there was a team whose name says hope, it is Sevilla’s opponents on Wednesday night. If N’Zonzi looks different to those who have not seen him in Spain, what of Leicester City? When he left, they were relegation candidates and, yes, they may be again, but they arrive in Spain as champions. “It was unbelievable what Leicester achieved, incredible,” he says. “They deserved it.”
Could that have happened in Spain? “I have played against teams in England and they are all very good with great, great players but here against Barcelona and Madrid it is very hard. Also, with Leicester’s type of play, I think it would have been harder in Spain. It’s different here.”
It is hard for Sevilla, too. “Over 38 games it is really hard to keep pace [with Madrid and Barcelona]. You have to believe you can win; if not, you don’t play. We have had a very good first half of the season, the most points in Sevilla’s history, but to do that again will be really tough – and for them to drop points too. It’s very complicated.”
“I don’t know if [the Champions League] suits us better, maybe,” N’Zonzi adds. “You can focus on two games and you qualify, then two games, then two games. There are great teams there too but it’s true that we have seen more lower teams reach the final there than in leagues, so ...”
So, first Leicester. “Dangerous,” he says. “It’s only two games and we can’t say: ‘Oh, it’s Leicester; it is going to be easier than if it was a bigger team.’ This is the wrong way to see things, because if they are here then it’s because they deserve to be; they qualified just like us. We are going to have to play hard to beat them. Of course they miss Kanté: he has a lot of energy, he was unbelievable, but they are have very fast players in attack so it’s a different way of playing, dangerous. But the manager will show us how we can change a little bit. We can adapt.”
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