ITW Yakuba Ouattara (Monaco): “In Euroleague, I fill my size deficit with my activity, my energy and my determination”
At 29 years old, Yakuba Ouattara (1.92 m) discovered this year the Euroleague with AS Monaco, the club in which he is playing his sixth professional season after a season in Spain with Betis Sevilla. The French international confides in learning his new role.
Monaco, was it a natural choice for your return to France?
Yes, a choice that for me was quite easy to make because Monaco is a club that I know very well (Editor’s note: it evolved from 2015 to 2020 except for a passage in G-League in 2017-2018) and Zvezdan… I was his player for several seasons so I knew perfectly well.
Before signing for Monaco, you announced that you wanted to join a Euroleague club. What makes you vibrate in this competition?
The intensity, the fact of facing the best European players… Every three days, we have a match. It really is the best European competition. Each meeting, you face the Red Star (Red Star of Belgrade), Barcelona, Real Madrid… It’s stimulating.
Twelve meetings in one month, it’s new for you, how do you feel about the pace of the start of the season?
It’s very, very, very intense. Honestly, both physically and mentally. But that’s also the high level and that’s what I’m looking for personally. It is very tiring! You do not have time to breathe that we must immediately turn the page and play the next game and all the time be efficient. That’s the very high level and that’s also why we have such a large squad, to be able to count on a lot of players throughout the season.
Are you satisfied with your start to the season on a personal level?
Yes, but “can do better” I would say. We’re still a new team. We are not all perfectly well on the ground yet. I think it will change over time. The more matches we are going to have, the more we will progress together and the better we will be. We manage to perform well even being a new team so that bodes well for the future. For my part, I find myself quite good in the role I have today but I know my qualities and I know that I can contribute even more.
“Sometimes being less involved in the offense can be a little frustrating at times, but it’s part of the sacrifice that has to be made for a team to win. Not everyone can be the guy who will score 20 points, the guy who will be counted on every night in attack. For the team, everyone has to sacrifice something ”
Lately, you have happened to play the entire first quarter and then be on the bench for the majority of the rest of the game … Is that a role for you?
At this level, you take what you are given. You have to be able to perform well in the time given to you, whether it is two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes… You know that you are not going to play very long so the most important thing is to be ready and to to be able to give everything when you are used.
Sometimes you do not come into play, as in Madrid or against CSKA Moscow. Why ?
We are fifteen in the workforce so in each game, there is …
Photo: Yakuba Ouattara (Euroleague)