AC Milan's star midfielder, Ismael Bennacer, has granted an interesting and lengthy interview to those at 'Paye Ta Graille', a YouTube show for the channel Instant Foot. Here are some of his words about his beginnings in sport:
"You would never guess what I used to do before football, I swear you'd never guess it. It's in fact the Capoeira (Afro-Brazilian martial art and game that includes elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality). If it's why I'm agile on the pitch? I assure to you, it has helped me a lot in football, I promise. I am very flexible, and it's thanks to that. The more flexible you are, the less prone you are to injuries. I have plaed Capoeira for 6 years. I even started it before football."
Bennacer continued:
"I started Capoeira at age of 6. I really really liked it so much. Plus, it's Brazilian, I liked Brazil a lot, you know, there was Ronaldinho, it was that era. At the age of 10 or 11, I stopped, my teacher stopped. I enrolled in another insitution to do it, but it was super expensive. I don't know how much the hour cost, and the professor was from Brazil, I think 80 euros per hour, it was so expensive. Then, I followed football. I had started it at age of 9 while my friends started it at ages of 4 or 5... My brother played football, my father would only watch football and we played in the streets, so that's why I started playing it."
