Izuchukwu OkosiFrance international Joules Koundé’ has expressed his elation on Thursday after Sevilla and Barcelona agreed to a move to the Blaugrana for the centreback and credited former Spain and Barcelona star Xaxi Hernandez as the reason he chose to sign for the La Liga giants.
Chelsea had shown keen interest to sign the defender but Barcelona just as they did with forward Raphinha hijacked the deal to snap up the player of Cameroonian descent.
“I’m really proud, grateful. I can’t wait to join the team start this Barcelona story.” #FCB, Koundé wrote on his Instagram handle.
“I say thank you to Sevilla but of course Barça is a top step in my career – so here I wanna win all competitions.”
Koundé then confirmed that head coach Xavi Hernández is the man who changed the deal after his expected move to Chelsea:
“Xavi is a big reason as to why I’m here. His spiel convinced me, I’m excited to start working with the team”. 🔵🔴 #FCB
“It’s clear that we see football in the same way,” Koundé enthused.
An interesting aspect of the defender’s arrival at Barcelona will be his working relationship with left back Jordi Alba whom he had a flashpoint with in one of the La Liga fixtures between Sevilla and Barcelona last year.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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