This interview first appeared in the October issue of the Everton Magazine.
For the essence of Idrissa Gana Gueye and the joie de vivre that underpins his play and approach to life, you have to take a journey back to the training fields and classrooms of the Diambars Football Academy in Senegal.
Here he had the perfect grounding. His formative years as a ball-winning, grass covering, holding midfield player were spent honing his skills at a facility co-founded by arguably the finest player in that position of the Premier League era.