Manchester United’s new left-back Alex Telles has been discussing what it is like to play in the Premier League, has revealed what hobby plays a big part in his life away from football and discussed his sporting icon.
Telles, 28, joined United during the summer transfer window’s deadline day after making a £13.5m switch from Portuguese side FC Porto, as per Transfermarkt.
Since his arrival, the attacking full-back has featured in eight matches in all competitions as he continues to provide Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with an alternative attacking option.
Telles has enjoyed a successful career which has so far spanned across five different countries and included spells with Inter Milan, Galatasaray and FC Porto.
Best known for his attacking nature and pin-point set-pieces, Telles, who already has one assist in his United account has opened up on how he’s found playing in England’s top-flight.
“I know this is a much more intense and physical football, so I’m also working more, in a way, focusing more on fitness, so that I can also be on the same level or even more than all of them”, Alex Telles told ESPN Brasil. “I was always a guy who liked to take set-pieces from the grassroots categories, I always wanted to stand out in something.
“I knew I had a good left foot, and at some point I needed to refine myself and be able to train this type of foundation further. About five years ago, I started to force this type of play more, and it started to work very well.
“When I went to Galatasaray, I didn’t have many assists. After I went to Porto it started to grow very big, and I started to really have that confidence and to realise that I could help the team in the offensive part, even playing in a back row.
“I started working on this, I started to improve after training, and I’m very demanding with myself.
“I don’t leave training without feeling that I have evolved in any way, even if it’s a cross, a set piece.”
Speaking about how he’s adapting to life in a new country, Telles has revealed how music is an important part of his life.
“One of the first things I wanted to bring here on the move was my instruments,” Telles said. “It’s one of the refuges I have for me, at some more troubled time I can get a little distracted.
“Since I was eight I play the guitar, I learned about two years ago piano, and percussion instruments of samba and pagode I know practically all of them. I like drums too, I had one at home. It’s that adventure that we keep venturing out and keep distracting, for me it’s very good.”
When asked where he gets his inspiration from, United’s new 28-year-old admitted that NBA star LeBron James is someone he has a lot of time for, he said: “I like basketball a lot, I’ve been watching it for some time.
“LeBron [James] is a guy that I see a lot as an example for the way he works, the mentally strong way he is. By the age he already has today. Even so he manages to improve his teammates, being in the finals, giving his best, always one of the best players in the competitions.
“He’s an example of an athlete, he’s won everything, he already has his history, but even so he succeeds with each passing year and manages to be better and beat his records.
“He’s also a guy who has his foundations, helps people, and I also do in Caxias, Brazil, I also have my social project. So I really like this type of athlete, of mentality, so he really is a guy that I get a lot of inspiration from.”
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