WATCH: Bolasie’s Liverpool admission; ‘fat Ronaldo’ a hero
Everton winger Yannick Bolasie has admitted he would play for Liverpool – rather than be chased by wasps – and that one of his heroes is ‘fat Ronaldo’.
To make Bolasie’s rehab from a cruciate ligament injury injury less tedious, things were spiced up when he was asked some interesting questions between each set of exercises.
And he came up with his answers to the rehab quiz in an exclusive video for Footballers Lives. It went like this:
Q: Would you still carry on playing football if you were only paid in burgers?
A: Well to be fair I got paid in burgers because I was scoring goals. So if I can start scoring goals again I might think about it
Q: Would you rather be chased by 200 wasps for a week – or play for Liverpool?
A: Everton fans are probably going to kill me but I’d have to play football and I’d have to play for Liverpool. There’s no way I’m getting chased by wasps. For a week as well. Ninety minutes, it’s done. Quick, it’s done.
Q: What rule change would you like to see in football?
A: If goalkeepers bring down someone but they’re not the last man they can get a yellow card now. I think it should be a straight red because they’re clearly blocking a scoring opportunity. You can take the penalty an you might miss but as a player if I’m going round the keeper it’s almost 99.9 per cent that I’m scoring. So if I get brought down, I want him off not still on the pitch.
Q: What’s the funniest think you’ve heard a fan shout during a game?
A: It would be when I was playing against Liverpool and a fan said: ‘You’re only Cristiano Ronaldo for one day!’ I said: ‘Yeah, cheers, mate.’ I ended up making a goal and winning the game 3-1 and I gave him the thumbs up after and said: ‘Cheers!’ I got Man of the Match. It’s part of football. It means that if people are calling me that I have to work hard and try and turn that into 365 days.
Q: Would you rather have a red card or your phone stolen?
A: You can recover data and stuff on your phone but a red card means fines and all that and it’s cheaper to buy a new phone.
Q: Name three of your heroes, dead or alive
A: Tupac definitely, I like his music. Biggie (Notorious B.I.G.) and Fat Ronaldo from Brazil
Q: Who has the best nickname in the Everton squad?
A: Well Leighton Baines would be called Bazza, Phil Jagielka Jags, Ross Barkley Rosco. I kinda like Jags. Jags is cool. And Rosco. Probably Rosco.
Q: What’s the best/worst thing an opponent has said to you during a game trying to put you off?
A: I normally blank out a lot of people so. Someone said something bad but it was just: ‘Can you stop running’ or something. When they’ve hit me hard in a tackle and I just get up, they go: ‘You’re a strong boy, innit? I like that!’ But I was like: ‘Yeah, thanks’ but I weren’t really taking notice because in a minute I was going to rip into him anyway when I had the ball. So for me the worst thing is getting friendly with someone on the pitch because you start thinking that he’s an all right person and that tends to get in the way.
Q: Name three footballers you idolised growing up
A: Thierry Henri, R9 (Ronaldo) and Ronaldinho.
Q: What are your favourite and least favourite stadiums?
A: Accrington Stanley was probably the worst stadium I’ve been to. That was Barnet days. That was my debut in the Football League. Imagine that. I was thinking: ‘What the hell am I getting into?’ I thought that of Bournemouth as well. Not their pitch but they seat about 10,000 and compared to the average that you get in the Premier League, I’m thinking, ah you don’t want to play there. It’s about playing in front of the fans.
My favourite pitch? The one at West Ham looks great right now. I loved the first time I went to the Man City stadium. That was like Wow. And I like Stamford Bridge as well.