Hakimi: “Real Madrid didn’t want to take a chance on me as much as other clubs”

Former Real Madrid right-back Achraf Hakimi has talked in an interview with MARCA, published ahead of Tuesday’s match between Paris Saint-Germain and Los Blancos in the first leg of the Champions League’s Round of 16. Hakimi has become one of the best fullbacks in European football and he tried to explain why he couldn’t achieve that wearing the white shirt.

“In the end it was a mix of two things. It’s normal that you don’t get much trust from the club when you’re still a young player from Castilla. But then I joined Dortmund on a two-year loan deal and I think I performed well there, so Real Madrid had to make another decision and they didn’t take a chance on me even though I could’ve kept performing well. Then, when I joined Inter, Madrid also had an option to buy me back and decided not to trigger it, so I believe that Real Madrid didn’t take a chance on me as much as other clubs. And I’m happy about that because I think that those clubs didn’t make the wrong decision,” said Achraf.

He also explained how he’s changed as a player since he joined the French club.

“I’ve changed quite a lot, I’m older, more mature and more experienced. In Madrid I was still a Castilla player who was playing with canteranos and I lacked experience at a high level. These years I spent in other big clubs and teams helped me become the player I am today, more experienced, mature and with more responsibility,” he added.

Achraf said that PSG will need to take Madrid very seriously in order to advance to the Quarterfinals.

“It’s clear that they have great players who have been together for many years and they have tremendous quality. We have to be very careful with all of them, their counterattacks and all. But they also have to be careful with us, as we will try to control the game,” he explained.