Boubakary Soumare feels like “another person” after passing up opportunities to leave Leicester City and knuckling down to prove he has Premier League quality. The French midfielder, who is favourite to start at the base of midfield against Crystal Palace on Saturday, has shown improvements in his second season at the King Power Stadium following a difficult first term. The challenges of adjusting to a new country and a new club had looked like they may be too great to overcome for Soumare, who had been set for the exit door at the start of the summer, having only featured in two of City’s final 17 Premier League matches last season. But, amid interest from abroad and from overseas, with Monaco notably keen on taking him back to France, Soumare said he decided he did not want to call time on his City career after one season, and told manager Brendan Rodgers as such. He is determined to make it work at City, and feels like he has made progress.
Boubakary Soumare said: “First and foremost, I didn’t sign for the club just to play for one season. There might have been a bit of noise and speculation in the media but I always thought of my first season as being, not settling in for the whole season, but getting used to the English league maybe, then in the second season really hit the ground running. As soon as pre-season started I came back very, very determined to work hard from minute one so that I would be ready and in the manager’s plans to put in a great series of performances all season. I spoke to the manager because there was talk of maybe clubs in Italy, France, and even England being interested in me, but I was focused on my second season at Leicester and wanting to do well. I said to the manager that while I’m here at the club you can be rest assured that you’ll be getting 100 per cent from me in terms of performances in training and in matches. As a club, we recognise that we’re not where we want to be in the league, but personally it’s like I’m another person. I think that it was kind of a learning curve last season and I feel like I know everything that I need to know about the English game. I’m up to speed and really enjoying my football.”
While things have improved for Soumare personally, he now hopes they do for the club too, with City sat bottom ahead of the game against Palace. Not since the 1-0 success against Liverpool last December has Soumare started a match that City have won.
Boubakary Soumare added: “Obviously it’s not the kind of start we would have wanted. No one wants to be bottom of the table and what we’re all focusing on now is working as hard as we can in every training session and working as a group to put Leicester back into the position which they deserve to be, which is higher up the table.”
