Neal Maupay wants to guide OM’s youngsters without repeating the past

“I don’t want to repeat that pattern”: Neal Maupay sums up his desire to support OM’s young players. In an interview with RMC Sport, the forward explains how he sees his leadership role in a squad with many youngsters.

Maupay returned to OM this summer after a six-month loan at Sevilla FC, regaining his place in the squad amid an austerity drive imposed on the club. At 30, he is one of the influential voices in the Marseille dressing room. He says he wants to put his experience to work for his younger teammates.

“Without really noticing it, I’ve been playing at the highest level for quite a while now, so I have a little more experience, and this year we have a lot of young players with us,” he says. The forward connects that approach to his own early career: “I’m part of a generation that also started very young. And perhaps the older players, when I started at 16, didn’t have the patience or perhaps the desire to help us youngsters. I don’t want to repeat that pattern.”

His role, he says, goes beyond occasional advice. Maupay makes time to share what he has learned: “I like to take time out to try to advise them because we’ve all been through the same thing, we all started at some point, and I think it’s important to try to guide them.” He hopes the younger players can improve faster and reach international level sooner. “The sooner they understand certain things, the sooner they’ll improve,” he says, suggesting they might become internationals in three or four years rather than five, six or seven.

He says that commitment also applies when he is not playing. “On the pitch, I always give everything. It’s the same in the dressing room. Whether I play or not, I try to keep the same mindset.” While he admits he is not satisfied when he does not start, he believes substitutes can help their teammates by sharing what they see from the outside. “That’s what I try to bring, whether I’m on the pitch or off it.”