Upamekano: “When I was little I stuttered and was scared because I was made fun of – Football helped me”

He spoke to the Guardian about stuttering in his childhood Dagio Upamekanos. The defender of Bayern Munich said that the world him mocked but through her support from his family treatments and his football, managed to overcome the problem.

“I was very afraid. When you are a child and you stutter, you are afraid to speak because people will make fun of you. It’s hard to distance yourself from the problem. You keep telling yourself the same thing: ‘If I talk, they’ll laugh at me.’ You don’t want to communicate with anyone.” were his initial words and he added:

“My family supported me a lot. I was always told to speak freely and not care if anyone laughed. They used to tell me that those who might have mocked me will in the end be the ones who applaud me. The most important thing is to talk. But it is difficult. They were not in my position, I had the stutter. Luckily I listened to my family’s advice.

Football helped me a lot. Playing as a defender you have to talk. In the team, the coach made me the captain, so I had to communicate with all my teammates. On the pitch I felt very good, no one was making fun of me. There stuttering was not a problem”

Upamecano talks about his childhood in an interview for @guardian_sport:

??? “Cuando eres un nino que tartamudea, tienes miedo a hablar porque la gente se burla de ti”.

??? “Mi familia me decia que hablara a pesar de mi impedimento en el habla, incluso si se metian conmigo”. pic.twitter.com/OFocqfGvhJ

— Relevo (@relevo) April 9, 2023