AC Milan defender Malick Thiaw has revealed that he is looking forward to the game against Borussia Dortmund which his friends and family will attend.
Growing up Thiaw played for Fortuna Düsseldorf, Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Mönchengladbach before he joined the youth academy of Schalke 04 in 2015, where he rose through the ranks.
The centre-back made his professional debut with Schalke in a 1–1 draw against TSG Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga on 7 March 2020, and his first start in the league came against Dortmund three years ago.
On the eve of the game Thiaw sat down and spoke with Milan TV about his return to Germany, with his comments transcribed below.
“It’s very nice for me. All my friends and family will come to see the game, so it’s very nice also to play near to home, my home in Germany,” he said.
“I played for Schalke 04, always a big rivalry between Schalke and Dortmund, so it’s very nice to play there.”
Thiaw was asked if he had any special words of advice for his team-mates given that he has experience playing at the Signal Iduna Park and against BVB.
“I told them they have one of the biggest fanbases in the world. Christian [Pulisic] knows even better than me, he spoke more to the guys than me.”
Milan come into the game having won three in a row in Serie A which has helped put the derby defeat to Inter behind them, and the defensive improvement has been a big reason for the excellent response.
“In a good way, we’re doing good, we have a lot of fun and confidence on the pitch and we try to improve even more.
“All of the defenders love when we get a clean sheet, we’ll try our best tomorrow not to concede a goal and to make the fans happy as well.”
🗣️ Malick Thiaw looks forward to #BVBACM
🏟️ Playing near home
📈 Current good form
⛔ Loving clean sheets #UCL #SempreMilan pic.twitter.com/XLMugn1WL7— AC Milan (@acmilan) October 3, 2023
