EFL Q&A: Sol Bamba on his Leicester regret, Neil Warnock's music taste and proper tackling

The Ivory Coast international (with 44 caps), who was born and raised in a Parisian suburb, will turn 33 in January, yet such is Cardiff Manager Neil Warnock’s belief in him, that age is no boundary to his long-term security in south Wales.

The affable Bamba is as relaxed and jovial off the pitch as he is combative on it – a style he learned by watching English football as a boy.

That is one of his revelations in our latest Sky Bet EFL Q&A, in which he discusses a career that has taken in stops in Scotland (with Dunfermline and Hibernian), England (Leicester and Leeds), Turkey (Trabzonspor), Italy (Palermo) and now Wales.

That magical mystery tour might yet end with a trip to the Premier League if Championship leaders Cardiff can maintain their flying start, beginning with Saturday’s visit to Fulham.

Were you always a central defender?

No, actually. When I started with Paris St Germain, I was a holding midfielder playing just in front of the back four. That was my best position at the time and I played there for two years. One day we had a game that someone missed because he was involved in a traffic jam, so I played at the back to replace him, had a good game and from that day I have been a central defender. I was 15 at the time.

I was more comfortable with the defensive part when I was playing in midfield anyway. The way we were brought up in France and in Paris in particular, they want everyone to be comfortable with the ball. I was, so that’s why people said I could play in midfield, but I was always preferred the defensive side.

Best moment on a football pitch?

That has to be the World Cup in 2010, the first World Cup I was involved in, and then the second one three years ago in Brazil.

But the first one was special, firstly because we qualified which was a big dream of mine when I was a young kid and then to step on the pitch. The atmosphere of the 2010 World Cup was special because it was in Africa. We had a great team as well with the likes of (Didier) Drogba and Kolo Toure. Football-wise, the experience wasn’t great because we didn’t manage to qualify for the second round. We’ve always had difficult groups. In 2006, we had Argentina, Holland and Serbia. Then in 2010, we had Brazil, Portugal and South Korea. In Brazil (in 2014), we had Colombia, Japan and Greece, which was more like it, but unfortunately we didn’t manage to go through then either.

There is a new generation now with some new young players who are doing very, very well, but the target for next year is still to get through the group.

Is there one regret you need to put right?

That’s a tough one. I was talking about this to the gaffer (Neil Warnock) this morning, actually. He asked me if I had any regrets in football. I said no, because in every country and every club I’ve played, it’s been a new experience for me and my family. The kids learn different languages. The same for myself and my wife. It’s a new culture, new football, so it’s always been a great experience.

But if I have one regret, I would say that I should have stayed at Leicester a bit longer because I could feel what was going on (he left for Trabzonspor in the summer of 2012). When Nigel Pearson took charge, he said straightaway that the target was the Premier League and we were going to get there eventually. I think I should have stayed there longer and built a good relationship.

Who knows what I could have been part of? I still talk to some of the players there. It’s been a great journey so far and they are enjoying every moment of it. I wish I could have been part of that.

I can’t go back in time, but myself and other players here have been in the play-off positions and the fight for promotion before, so the gaffer is counting on us to bring that experience into the club. I haven’t managed to get promotion to the Premier League yet but hopefully I can do it with Cardiff.

Hardest opponent?

That’s a tough question. On the purely physical side, I would say Rudy Gestede. He’s always gave me a hard time when I have played against him when he was at Cardiff (before Bamba arrived) and then Blackburn.

Obviously the physical side of it I can manage and I like it. When I have got a small, busy striker, I find it a bit more difficult.

So in terms of movement I would say Scott Hogan, who was at Brentford and now at Villa. He has very good movement off the ball and he always gives me a hard time as well. As a striker you are judged on goals and he maybe hasn’t scored too many goals for Villa yet, but the way I look at playing against strikers is their overall game and I think he has got it all.

He’s got good movement, he can finish and I think he’s been under-estimated because of all the injuries he’s had.

Least favourite away ground?

It’s got to be Millwall, hasn’t it? I know I’m not going to have a lot of friends by saying that, but it’s got to be there. It’s very old style, an old-fashioned ground and the fans are really on to you. I like that style of football but I think the Millwall fans take it a step too far, in my opinion. It’s good to be behind your team 100% but you shouldn’t pass that line and sometimes the Millwall fans go a bit far.

A lot of people have told me about the history of Millwall and Leeds when I was playing for Leeds, and Millwall and Cardiff now that I am playing for Cardiff, but to be honest, I have never witnessed any trouble while I have been in English football.

I have only had good times there with the fans. That’s what gets me going and gets a lot of lads going. It makes you want to show even more what you can do.

Millwall have very good fans who support the team, they have got good banter with the opposition fans and I’ve been lucky not to have any trouble with them or any racist abuse, but it’s just that they take it too far at times.

What’s your guilty food pleasure?

That has got to be chocolate, hasn’t it? Milk chocolate. I’m like a kid when it comes to sugar. l eat a lot of sweets with my kids, but I can’t do it too often unfortunately. My hand is always dipping into their sweets, so the missus tells me off and tells me I have to stop. If there’s one chocolate bar above all, it’s got to be Kinder.

Funniest thing you have seen in a dressing room?

I don’t think there are many you can print, but the gaffer is always moaning about the music we put on. He was on the music for Barnsley away last season, so he put on his music from the 60s, 70s. The lads didn’t want it but they felt they couldn’t say anything so they said: “Go on, Sol. Speak to the gaffer.”

I said: “There’s nothing I can do, he wants to put his music on.”

They said: “Just go up and unplug the iPod. If you do it, he’s not going to say anything to you.”

I said: “Okay, I’m going to do it.” I went and unplugged the iPod. The gaffer went absolutely crazy, saying: “Why did you do that? Leave it.”

I said: “Sorry, gaffer, but we can’t listen to that music. If we listen to that, we’re going to lose the game.”

He was dying laughing and said: “Alright, put your own music on as long as you win the game.”

We drew 0-0. It’s just a good job we didn’t lose.

Boyhood sporting hero?

I used to love Lilian Thuram, the defender who used to play for France. I met him a couple of times. When I was growing up, he was my number one with George Weah, the striker who played for AC Milan. Those two were unbelievable for me. Unfortunately I didn’t have the quality of George Weah to score goals.

What I liked about Thuram – and he said this himself – was that when he started his career, he wasn’t the best. He wasn’t blessed with all the attributes, but he worked very hard and he gave himself the chance to make it as a footballer. For me, that’s massive because you’ve got some talented players who are gifted but they don’t want to work. If you work hard in whatever you do, you’ve got a chance to be successful.

He did it the hard way and he was a World Cup winner.

If you had the power, what one thing would you change about the game?

Bring back proper tackling. I actually started following English football because of my dad. He used to have the French Sky and he used to watch English football. One day I asked him why he was watching English football and not French football. He said it was because he liked the physical side of English football, the tackles and the way the refs let the game play on. He said: “The French league is too soft for me.”

I’m lucky enough to be playing in the English league now and he was right. But some of the tackles you see now, they can be great tackles but because of the rules, sometimes you get sent off for those tackles or it’s given as a foul when I don’t think it is a foul.

It’s definitely the case that referees seem to have thoughts about certain players. You can be on a booking more quickly and after that you’ve got to change your whole game. I know that referees get over-protective to players because they want to prevent injuries and no-one wants any player to get injured but at the same time, you want to let the game flow, especially the physical side of it.

The Old Firm derbies in Scotland are what it’s all about, the passion and desire in those games. If you take that away, you’ve got nothing really, because that’s what the fans like as well – the passion, desire, headers, tackles.

Most embarrassing moment in football?

Probably own goals and I’ve scored a couple. You feel very alone when that happens and you feel like you’ve let your teammates down, the fans and the manager. Even when you can’t do anything about some of them, you still get the same feeling. You still feel alone. Some of the own goals are unbelievably funny like the one Johnny Russell scored two weeks ago (the Derby midfielder scored in his own net in the 3-1 defeat at Sheffield United in August) but I still felt sorry for him.

As for the sending-off at Ipswich last season (in a 1-1 draw in December 2016 when Bamba lost his cool even with his own manager Neil Warnock), what was most embarrassing for me that day was what the gaffer said to me afterwards. He said: “Listen, that’s not you. You’ve always got a smile on your face, you’re always laughing. We saw another side of you and no-one can believe it.”

He was right. It was absolutely silly. I almost don’t want to bring it up because it was that embarrassing for me. I can’t do that. I’m an experienced player, I’m going to turn 33 soon, I’ve been a professional for 15 years and I can’t do stuff like that.

I’ve got exactly the right manager to handle a situation like that. It says everything about him. We had a very deep conversation after that in which he said: “Listen, it’s happened, let’s move on. But I need to understand because I don’t want you like that again.” That’s what was so embarrassing for me.

I said: “You brought me to the club. I feel so bad because like I let you down now. That won’t happen again.”

It won’t, but I’ll never forget it.

Which player in history would you like to play alongside?

It’s got to be Tony Adams, hasn’t it? We all know why. He was a great player and he had all the qualities, but it was his leadership skills that were second to none. There was no better leader for English football to have.

It would be easy to play alongside him because he would tell me what to do all the time.

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