Bolasie: DJ Ross Barkley is doing a great job while I’m injured

Michael Graham

Ross Barkley: New music man in Everton dressing room

Yannick Bolasie has praised one of his Everton team-mates for standing in for him while he recovers from a cruciate ligament injury. He reckons Ross Barkley is doing a great job – as dressing room DJ.

In an exclusive video interview, Bolasie explained how Barkley is keeping the Toffees team happy with his varied playlists before games at Goodison Park.

Bolasie told kicca.com: “Ross Barkley has been playing a mix of everything, and I’m surprised with him actually. He listens to Mist and all the kinds of people I listen to. So I’ve been: ‘Yeah, I like your type and I like your music.’ ”

Bolasie, who was in fine form before his injury against Manchester United in November, explained how Barkley had impressed him with one of his Soundcloud mixes. He enthused: “Ross brought in a mix the other day and I was going: ‘Whose is this mix?’ It had a track on I went to download, so I was: ‘Yeah, I’ll give it to Ross. At the minute, he’s holding it.’ ”

Bolasie had been in charge of the music at Everton following his £25m transfer from Crystal Palace during the close season. He revealed how the only music that failed in the dressing room was grime – though it was starting to make an impact with Everton’s foreign contingent.

Bolasie said: “I’d been playing Afrotrap, French rap, reggaeton… Because we’ve got Spanish players and a Dutch boy, everything else was all right, but when grime came on it was too fast for them to understand.

“But grime is coming on now, with people like Skepta and JME taking it global. So people are starting to know their lyrics.”