Interview
Yan Couto interview: "My hair is the colour of coal, it's perfect for BVB!"
We're in the third international break of the season - you're currently focusing on your comeback at BVB. You made your debut for the Brazilian national team almost exactly a year ago, in the 1-1 draw against Venezuela in Cuiabá. What was your experience of the game?
Even a year later, I can hardly put that feeling into words. It was an incredible moment in my life. I thanked God and my family and everyone who accompanied me on the way there. Danilo got injured just before the end of the first half and I barely had time to stretch and warm up a bit. But in those few seconds, I thought about everything I had done to make this dream come true. And of course I was a bit nervous. Me in the Seleçao! Together with players like Neymar and Vinicius Junior. What a great day for me and my family!
Was that even more moving than winning the U17 World Cup at home in Brazil five years ago? Back then, you set up the goal in stoppage time to win the final 2-1 against Mexico.
It's difficult to compare the two. Of course, it was also a very emotional occasion, because when do you ever become world champion, and then in front of your compatriots? But it was the U17s, not the big Seleçao that every boy in Brazil dreams of.
Pelé, Garrincha, Zico, Ronaldo - there are all kinds of legends in Brazil that young players are only too keen to emulate. Who is your idol?
Cristiano Ronaldo! Yes, not a Brazilian, but a Portuguese. That may be unusual, but Cristiano is also an unusual footballer. Look at how he moves on and off the pitch, how he organises his whole life around giving everything for the sport. How hard he works for it, even now at the age of 39. But I also admire Neymar, a great player and person, he helped me a lot when I made my debut for the national team. I enjoyed playing with him. You can tell how important he is by how much the Seleçao have missed him recently because of that serious knee injury. Neymar and Cristiano are the two footballers who inspire me the most.
Even if they play in a different position to you?
Yes, but at the end of the day we all play football and they do things on the pitch that nobody else can do. That's what counts.
What type of footballer are you?
I'm a right winger who tries to interpret the game in a modern way, i.e. to do the defensive work at the back without making mistakes and to bring in creative elements up front. My speed and technique help me to do this. I'll do everything I can to experience great times with the Borussia fans in the Bundesliga and the Champions League.
You signed a contract with Manchester City at the age of 18 and have been loaned out to other clubs ever since, to Girona, Braga and then Girona again. Spain and Portugal are also a long way from Brazil, but the temperature and language are very similar. And Germany? It must be a completely different world for you...
That's true. Portugal was very close to my home country, there are a lot of Brazilians playing in the league there, and in Spain too. Germany is a completely new experience, a different culture and language, and it's supposed to get a bit colder in winter. But my world is football, and it's played according to the same rules in Germany as in Brazil, Spain or Portugal. Of course, I still have to get used to certain things here and there, but that will come.
Before you signed for Manchester, Pep Guardiola said you had to learn to speak English better than Gabriel Jesus. In Girona, you delighted the fans by learning a bit of Catalan. And now? How are your German skills?
Ha, good point! I'm still struggling a bit with the German language. Nobody in the team speaks Portuguese apart from me, but in the dressing room we communicate in English, which works very well. And German? Hmm. I don't know much more than ‘thank you’ and ‘good morning’ yet. I have to and will work on that.
What did you already know about the Bundesliga before the season?
At home, we tended to pay attention to the Premier League or the Spanish league. I know the German clubs from the Champions League, especially Bayern and Dortmund. Big clubs that everyone in Brazil knows, of course. That's why I was so pleased to receive the offer from Borussia. As far as the other teams in the league are concerned, it's still new territory for me, a great adventure.
Which Dortmund players did you already know during your time in Spain?
Pretty much all of them! Borussia is a big club and didn't reach the final of the Champions League last season by chance. Marcel Sabitzer, Niki Süle, Greg Kobel, Julian Brandt and Waldemar Anton. And of course Gio Reyna, he played with the USA at the Copa America in the summer. I could list the whole team now, but you know them well enough yourself. They are all excellent footballers and I enjoy being with them every day.
There is a very special relationship between Dortmund and your home country. No other nation has produced as many players as Brazil.
I'm aware of that, and of course I know a few names from the past. Tinga, Evanilson or Marcio Amoroso. And of course Dedé and Felipe Santana, I had a churrasco, a Brazilian barbecue, with both of them in the summer. I know about the special history here and will do everything I can to help write a new, successful chapter.
When Dedé wanted to drive to training one morning during his first German winter, the windscreen of his car was frozen. So he left the car because he thought the windscreen was broken...
I've never experienced a German winter, but I spent three years in northern Spain. It's only 50 kilometres from Girona to the Pyrenees, and of course it snows there too. But I am aware of the fact that the winter in Dortmund will be a little different to what I have been used to so far. I see it as a challenge! And as we all know, you grow with challenges.
There was a time when German footballers also left their mark in Brazil. Do you know who Fritz Essenfelder was?
I have no idea!
A German-Argentine who came to Brazil from Buenos Aires in 1909, he brought the first football to Curitiba and founded Coritiba FC there. His picture still hangs in the club museum today. Your home club is a German invention, so to speak!
Oh, really? I know that there are many people with German roots in and around Curitiba, but I've never heard that my club was founded by Germans. I probably had to come to Dortmund for that.
You played an incredible season with Girona last year. As a team of no names, you led the league for a long time and ended up qualifying for the Champions League in a commanding third place. How difficult was it for you to leave this club?
It was a very emotional farewell. Girona is not just any club for me. I spent three very formative years there, but everything comes to an end. That's football.
At Girona, you not only caused a stir with your dribbling on the right wing, but also with your hair. It was dyed pink.
That was one of my ideas at the start of last season because I wanted to send out a personal signal. It was supposed to be a very special season for me, and that's exactly what it turned out to be. What's more, pink is my sister's favourite colour. I think this look was perfect for Spain and Girona, but now I'm in Dortmund. Look at my hair: It's black again, like coal, so it's perfect for BVB, isn't it?
Yan Couto's career: one of the top 60 at 17
At the age of ten, Yan Couto, born on 3 June 2002, became a member of the youth team in his hometown of Curitiba. In 2019, he won the World Cup title with the Brazilian U17 team. The Guardian newspaper included him in a list of the 60 greatest talents in the world of football. A year later, he moved to Manchester City and was loaned out to FC Girona, for whom he played a total of 95 games (five goals, 17 assists). In the meantime, in the 2021/22 season, he played for SC Braga (42 appearances, one goal, four assists). On 13 October 2023, the 1.68-metre-tall full-back made his debut for the Brazilian senior national team, for which he has made four appearances to date.
Interview: Sven Goldmann
Photos: Alexandre Simoes