Pre-season work doing wonders for Umm Salal: Sagbo

Yannick Sagbo has been leading Umm Salal’s attack ever since he joined them in 2015. That the Ivorian striker was named as the QNB Stars League’s best player for the month of September is testimony to his great form of late. Sagbo played crucial roles in Umm Salal’s hat-trick of wins, against Al Gharafa, Al Kharatiyat and Al Khor. Despite losing to Al Duhail last week, they are fifth in the table with 13 points and their French coach Laurent Banide was adjudged the best coach of September. The 30-year-old Sagbo, who has already scored six goals this season, spoke at length in an interview with QSL Online. Excerpts How do you look at the strong showing by Umm Salal thus far in this season’s QNB Stars League?We didn’t have enough time to prepare for the season, but we made the most of the opportunities in the pre-season. The camp in Slovenia was very effective and we worked hard there. It was disappointing when we lost our opening match to Al Sailiya through a last-minute goal. But we pulled up our socks and held Al Rayyan to a draw in the next game. We went on to beat Al Ahli.How do you analyse the three victories Umm Salal achieved on the trot in September?We went into the Al Gharafa match after suffering a big loss against Al Arabi. The chances were 50-50, but we could emerge as victorious. The games against Al Kharatiyat and Al Khor were also tough even though both teams were down the ranking order.How was your match against Al Duhail?We knew it would be difficult against Al Duhail. We had our chances and I myself missed a couple of them. Conceding a goal inside 15 minutes made things hard for us. Yet, we were about to equalise anytime before we received another goal towards the end.How did you feel when you won the best-player award for September?It felt great. Too many congratulatory messages started coming to my phone. I thank my teammates for making it happen. I’m extra happy that the team did very well during that period and our coach also won the award.How is Umm Salal’s team composition this season?We’ve a strong squad that has good players in all departments of the game. It’s more balanced than last season. The season is longer this time around and we’ve to stay fit to face the challenges. We want to finish in the top four. Every time we lose out on it after coming so close, so we want to achieve it this season. Personally, I want to better my last season’s tally of 10 goals and score at least 15 goals.Who are the best players around according to you?Al Sadd’s Xavi (Hernandez) and Al Gharafa’s (Wesley) Sneijder are, of course, big names. Other than them, Baghdad Bounedjah (Al Sadd), Vladimir Weiss (Al Gharafa), Nam Tae-Hee and Karim Boudiaf (both Al Duhail) are some of the players who have caught my attention.Among youngsters, Akram Afif (Al Sadd), Almoez Ali (Al Duhail), goalkeeper Yousef Hassan (Al Gharafa) and my teammate Adel Alawi are outstanding.You hail from Ivory Coast that has produced some great footballers. Who is the best Ivorian player of all time?Didier Drogba, Didier Zokora, Yaya Toure, Kolo Toure, Gervinho and Salomon Kalou are some of the greatest Ivorian footballers of all time. I rate Drogba as the best. I’m also in awe of Yaya.