Nothing and Nobody Will Ever Hurt You Again – Carl Jung

This BBC Podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Vapaus-matkustairaiteilla. Weher! Yhteisellä matkalla. Istävän päivä. Ei aika tauluja, ei pyytä varauksia, ei stressia. Tänä riittää koti. Ja se, että joku tärkeä mukaan se. Kukat ovelle, pieta maakeaa ja. Taas it vaan ihan omassa rauhassa. Kotona koiran kanssa, katon vähän leppoja. Hemmottainen itseäni. Tilaan herkkuja kotiin. Nisä vain ystävä. Kaikin mun tilat voltista. Helposti rakkaudella valt. The football interview on the football daily podcast. I'm Kelly Summers, and this season I'll be interviewing some of the biggest names in football asking them the questions they don't normally get asked, as I try to find out more about the person behind the player or manager. The first half will be on football the second on their life away from the game. This isn't just any interview. This is the football interview. Today I'm speaking to someone who's being hailed as one of the signings of last summer, it's Sundland's granits Jakka. Well granit, thank you so much for speaking to us today. Let's start with football. What's your first ever memory of it? Hemm, the thing I started very early to kick the first ball. Even when I was born, my grandfather was playing already with me, and properly the first kicks with four when I started where I grew up in Basel and just enjoying like every little one. Can you remember the first team that you played for? Yes, of course, it was FC Concordia Basel. It was a local team, so I was there until I was turning 12. Then I moved to after Basel and did my first steps there. You obviously realised from quite a young age did you? That you could potentially turn it into a career? Did you have a moment where you thought, "Actually, I'm quite good at this." I start with four, I think, or when my parents took myself with my brother to the team, wasn't just to have fun, to be with other kids together and not going in a wrong direction. This was the first target for them, because it was working and most of the time it was a loan with my brother. Playing just together and enjoying our time with the football. I had a little bit of bigger injury when I was around 15 with my knee. I started to study as well after this, with much more mature people who helped me in the way of my mentality and all these things. The under-17 World Cup was a key for myself, for the family, where I took the first steps after to the first team from after Basel. You mentioned that injury that you had at 15. Was it a really severe injury? Did you ever think that maybe you weren't going to be able to play? Yeah, it was out nearly nine months. When you are 15, you don't think too much about injuries. You don't think too much about can I get it, can I or I can't. The worst time for myself was when I came back. So I was scared to kick in the ball again, I was scared to go down and do it. Yeah, it was not an easy time, but I enjoyed it as well this time because this just made you stronger than you maybe think about yourself. You've played in some incredible teams, played in some massive games, but when you look back across your whole career, is there one match that you wish you could replay? Wow, this is a very good question, because I didn't think about this, maybe the biggest emotional game for myself was my first game with Switzerland against England. I was 17 at Wembley, and I will never forget the day before the game. The coach came to me and said, "You want to start tomorrow?" And my answer was, "I'm here to start." I already was 17, but when you come out and you see all these big players like Lampert, John Terry was there, Theo Walker, Jack Wilcher, who was an idol for us because he was just at the next level and you see them, you start to be nervous, you start to say, "I'm ready for this game or not." But yeah, I think this one was emotional, maybe the biggest game. What's been the toughest point in your career? I have two tough moments in my career, the first one was when I moved the first time away from my family with nearly 19 to Germany. Even the same language little bit Switzerland Germany, but it was very, very difficult for myself. Everyone knows how close I am with my family, but even with my brother. And just to be away from them was hard. But yeah, after this, I didn't get the minutes, what I wanted as well. I wanted to leave in January already after six months, but I had my dad behind me who said, "If you walk now, you will always walk away." So, heads down and just work. And I did for this moment and everything changed. And the second part I think is not a big secret, was 2019. When I had this, I called it a misunderstanding with the fans of Arsenal. But two moments where I think that I came stronger and better away from this moment because it's part of a process, it's part of writing as well. The whole history of what I believe I can do with them. One side, very bad, one side, I was lucky to have it. You mentioned the time at Arsenal then. Now you're back in the Premier League. If you had an opportunity to kind of really reflect on your whole period at Arsenal because you had some incredible highs as well as some really difficult moments. No, in general, I think people just think about this moment in 2019. But I came to 2016 and I was in the football club of Arsenal seven years. So, to be part of a football club seven years, to share the dressing room nearly 24/7. Every day with the same people, different people, every summer at the winter, we had new people around us. Makes me proud because it's not easy to be on this level for seven years. And of course, when I leave Arsenal, it was a hard decision for myself, for my family because we was happy there, but I got another offer on the table where I was thinking more far than in the moment. But to be honest, I didn't expect to be back in the Premier League after two years again. Did you know? No, no, no. This was not the plan of myself, of our family. So you never wanted to come back? It's not, I didn't want, but was not planned. So, when I moved from Arsenal, I signed a five-year contract in Liverpool. So, everything was planned around what happened after five years. Maybe taking a coaching first, all these steps, but yeah, always saying, "Follow, you never know where you are tomorrow." Why did you come back then? I came back because, first of all, people was laughing with me, to be honest. Even the closest part of friends say to me, "Why are you going back?" Say, "Why not?" "Yeah, okay, you can go back to Premier League, but why are you going back to Sunderland?" Say, "Because I love the challenge." And I had the feeling I needed a new challenge after two years in Germany, where we won the first year nearly everything, unbeaten in the Bundesliga, won the Cup, lost the final in the Europa League, was very painful. But as well, I just had the feeling with the owner when I spoke with them, with the club, with the coach. This is the right club for me, because the people are very humble. It's a small city where I grew up. I see exactly myself how I grew up, and I just wanted to come back in reality, where I believed is the right direction for myself, for my family. And I'm just happy that everything at the moment went how I was looking for. You must have expected it to go well, because otherwise you wouldn't have come here. But has it even exceeded your expectations? I mean, you hope that everything will be going in this way, what you think, because I say to the club, the first thing I say, "I'm not coming here to play in the Premier League for one year, and to go down." Because I'm leaving a Champions League club, I'm leaving a Champions Team like Leverkusen, we was, with great club, great people around. And I'm coming here to push this project, what the club has. With my experience, with my leadership, with the work I'm doing every day to show as well a new generation, that even when you're tired sometimes, you can go through. And I think that this period, what we had now in the winter, with all these games, and we missed seven players in Afkona as well, I think was a great experience for the dressing room. I find it fascinating, because you must have had other offers to come back to the Premier League, didn't you? It was a busy summer, to be honest. I'm 33, and my family was over Christmas here, and I spoke with my brother, and I say, "Why I had this offer now, I never had so many offers than this summer." It was a very busy summer for myself, from a family, because every day someone else comes, but I decided for myself, after 20 minutes on the call with the owner, I said to myself, I want to go to Sunday night. I was so sure, but I have another part in my family as well. They need to accept, they need to be happy, and all these things, but in the end, I managed to be here, and I'm just happy that I did this step. I was so happy, and I was able to go to the dressing room, so I was able to go to the dressing room, and I was able to go to the dressing room, and if I want to win, I demand myself a lot, and if I demand myself a lot, I demand from others. So sometimes people take it in a wrong way, but I hope that I'm not bringing this to them outside that I just want to kiss someone, it's just to winning games, and after the game, I think I'm the easiest guy who you can met. It's good to know that you're exactly the same as a child, I think it sounds like you are now. Yes. You mentioned family. Talk me through your family setup, because you've got a brother, that's right, and you're very close with him, he's also a footballer, and your parents too, close to them? I'm very close, I'm very close with both parents, I'm very close with my brother. I was lucky that our conversation with my brother was always above football, because he was playing as well, so he retired last summer, so he has much more time to watch our games. He comes, and he's watching in the TV as well in Switzerland. We speak about mistakes, we speak about good things, because sometimes we play at the same time as well. Of course, I can't miss my wife, who is my support for 24/7. Of course, my parents are not here now at the moment in UK or even in Germany, but I think with my wife who takes a lot of stress for myself, even with the kids and all the things, I think she's a key part of my life, for sure. Talk to me about the relationship with your brother and what it was like growing up, and also what it must have been like for your parents, because having two footballing boys, is he the same personality type as you? No, it's totally different. He's different, yeah. He's older than me, first of all. He was a little bit more chaos than me. I was always a lot of discipline. We grew up in Switzerland, we were born in Switzerland, but our background is from Kosovo. He was a little bit like a mix from Kosovo and Switzerland, and I was like a Swiss mentality like this discipline. I never missed any session I had when I came to late, and he was a little bit more lazy. In the end, we shared a lot of things, positive and negative, and he was always from me here. Talk to me about your dad as well, because he sounds like he's been a huge influence, and he must be incredibly proud, because he hasn't had it easy, but to now have two sons who play professional football. Yeah, I will be always thankful for my parents, because they grew up in Exibu Slava before, and my dad had not the easiest period of his life. When he was as well, three and a half years sitting in the prison, because of the politics stuff, just meeting my mom, and he went in the jail for three and a half years, so she was there for three and a half years alone, and when he came out of the situation, there were two options. To catch him again, or to leave the country. Without language, without money, without any people around in Switzerland, to come in a new country many, many years ago, who, yeah, there was racism in a country as well. There was not very open to them as well, to take them, to feed them, but my parents did the most of it, and they came with nothing, bring both of the sons through the right direction, without any big problems in a family, without any big problems on the street, and just giving us respect, giving us the discipline, and just the hard work and the mentality to be humble, and to respect everyone, doesn't matter the age. How would your best friends describe you? I think I'm a very humble guy. I need to help people a lot. For myself, I always say to myself or to my misses or to my parents and to my brother, I don't need anything. I just need you guys to be happy. I just want to see the smile in the face, to give them what they need, if they need something, and above myself, don't worry. I did it with myself, I know, because even when I had the problems with Arsenal fans, I was doing myself. I'd never, ever put my family in this part of darkness, because I had dark nights, I had dark days, but I never spoke about this with nobody because this is myself, this is my story, and I decided to go in this professional part of football, and I want everything to do for myself, to take them out as well. How do you deal with the dark moments? How did you deal with that moment of Arsenal, for example, because it can be quite lonely, and I imagine being a professional footballer with all the pressure on you, with everything going on, all the noise. How do you deal with that when you're at the eye of the storm? I mean, with words to describe, it's very, very difficult, because you can't change from today to tomorrow. And the worst time when I had was always when I was alone. Before the game in hotel or where my misses or my family was not around, every time these things came up. And I just wanted to deal with it alone, looking to myself and say, "Why this happened? Why is it me? What did I do wrong to the people?" Because I was a captain of the football club in this time. But there were too many noises and voices outside, even from players that didn't expect to speak about me about this. But I believe in life, everything comes back. And I'm just here sitting here and I'm very, very happy. And I just want to enjoy my time. I always ask in these interviews what people are proud of stuff. But also, your resurgence at Arsenal in the way you came back from all of that must be one of the things that you're proud of stuff. Absolutely true. And you can believe me or not. I didn't come back to show the people that I'm still the right man for the football club. Because in this moment I didn't care about this. I just wanted to show myself that I can do it. I didn't do it for nobody else. Just for myself and for the people I had always support for. And I get a lot of message even for people who were speaking bad about me today. We knew and you do this and you was great. But for me this is not interesting because football can change from today and tomorrow. That's why I always say myself even we have this hype with Sandeland. Just a humble and don't forget where you come from because this can change very quick. What do you only die of? How do you escape from all of this? I like to enjoy my time with my kids as much as possible because I'm not a lot at home. We are traveling a lot and I'm just enjoying with them. Every minute I can, I am with them. I try to pick them up to bring them to my school. And all these things just to give them the love what they're missing. Sometimes for myself, yeah this is the time what I'm doing. Do you have any hobbies or anything that you do? Because I know you'll say you spend time with your kids but there must be things that you do as well for yourself. Yeah, my hobby is just watching a lot of. Don't say football. Yeah, I'm not. To be honest, I just spoke with my wife yesterday and she said, "When we can change a TV and not watch it for the day." Because I'm watching non-leak to the highest level because I'm a guy I want to learn. And I can learn from the fifth division to the Champions League level. And when my kids sleeping, I know there's a worst time for my wife because they just fought more than a TV. But yeah, just spending time with a family first of all and after a football. Going back to the Emirates, how are you feeling? Yeah, it was a very emotional game already when we played at home. But I think the Emirates, they will be very, very emotional because how I say this was. Or is still my second home now after Sandeland for sure. Because seven years to spend there, even the people that are working there have still contact with them. And yeah, I'm just looking forward for this game and hopefully that everything will go through. How I wish. I actually sat down with you back in 2023 and you told me about how you nearly left Arsenal. And one of the big reasons you didn't leave you so back then was Michaela Aetetta. Are you looking forward to seeing him again? What's your relationship like with him? Absolutely. Of course, after the first game here at Sandeland after the game, we didn't have a lot of contact because of the situation and all these things. And I know how Michaela is, so he's better to leave him alone when he draw or he lose. But for sure in Emirates, hopefully it will be different because I have a lot of respect to this guy. Because he was the guy who kept me in the football club. Everyone knows it and I say this one other time and I will never forget what he did for me. I guessed for one of your proudest moments when I was talking about Arsenal, but what are you proudest of? I think I'm just proud which way I went through. To grow up in Switzerland where I wasn't easy. My parents, without the language, we grew up with a different language, with a different mentality. To have this mix about our background from Kosoa and to have this mix about many many things in Switzerland where I am very thankful to get it about the discipline, about the respect. It just makes me proud and that I can walk wherever I go with the head up. Tell me one thing about Granted Jacques that might surprise me. I don't know if I hate to be alone. I don't like to be alone because maybe of my football career as well. Because of the moments where I had a little bit of dark nights as well maybe. So I'm a guy if my family is not around, I need people around. For example, if my wife or my kids are not at home, I don't sleep in a bedroom. Really? No, I can't sleep in a bedroom because I feel like I'm alone, I feel like I'm. Why do you sleep? I sleep in the living room, for example. I feel very bad, you know, so maybe things like this, but. I guess you've been around people in football these years haven't you? No, no, I'm very happy. I'm very happy that I'm around people because I think I would be not the same guy if I'm not around people. What is one thing that people get wrong about you the most? They think I'm a little bit arrogant because I'm very straightforward and very honest. If I need to say something, I will tell you in face. Good and bad things. And maybe people take this a little bit of arrogance, a little bit of why he's straightforward. But I grew up like this because I hate if something happened behind your back. If you could only achieve one more thing in your career, what would it be? Everything what I achieved today, it was a big dream. And I achieved maybe much more than God wanted for me. And I'm very, very, very thankful that first of all, I'm healthy. I had healthy people around me and in the future, I'm not thinking about what happened in one year. I just think what happened tomorrow. So you don't look too far ahead anymore? No. Was that change throughout your career? Yes. Because of what you've experienced. Amazing. Well, it's been a fascinating journey and we'll make it continue. Best of luck. Thank you so much. Thank you. The latest news, insights and analysis from across the women's game. Lucy Ruggs, welcome back. What one line is do you think would make the best rugby player? Me? Listen. With the BBC Sounds app. S-Pankin Sästeja palvelussa Sästeminen on Ivan Lien helpua. Sästeja sä voit ohiota jokaisesta pankkikorttiostosta euron tai muun haluomasi suuman automatisesti Sästeön. Ota Sästeja käyttöön S-mobilissa S-pankki Suomen mutkattomin pankki Sästeja palvelun tarjoa S-pankki ohi. Tutustu lisää S-pankkipistefi.