Umtiti: After the Barcelona experience, I needed peace and quiet

Umtiti: After the Barcelona experience, I needed peace and quiet

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The Lecce defender has spoken about his loan in Italy and World Cup hopes

It is costing him, but Samuel Umtiti is coming out of ostracism after a long time. The central defender made his debut with Lecce last weekend against Roma, on matchday nine of Serie A, playing all 90 minutes of the match. "I felt wonderful emotions, I'm proud of the game I played... after so many months in which I worked hard to get back up to par with my teammates," Umtiti said of his debut.

On Friday, he appeared at a press conference to assess this Monday's match against Fiorentina, but also to speak about his arrival at Lecce on loan from Barcelona until June 30.

"After the Barcelona experience, I needed peace and quiet," he added. "Lecce is the best solution because it is also an ideal city to live in; the conditions are ideal here to start again. During the summer, there was contact [from other clubs], but I really feel I took the right decision."

Regarding his future, the French central defender acknowledged that "I came to Lecce with the mentality of facing different challenges every day. In Barcelona, I had a lot, just as I had the opportunity to play with great champions. Unfortunately, some physical problems forced me to start from scratch. It's not easy to come back, but I chose to rewrite my career with Lecce and the first step is to try to stay up."

Finally, he was also asked about his options to go to the 2022 Qatar World Cup with the France team and Umtiti was clear: "At this time in my life it is important to play again, feel valued and important in this team and achieve my goal with Lecce. World Cup? With the national team I have written beautiful pages of my career, but for now I am only thinking about Lecce and doing well with this shirt".

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