Moussa Djenepo discusses dancing, playing the piano and his first year at Saints

The exciting young winger arrived in England from Standard Liege last summer, unable to speak the language and with no experience of playing in such a demanding league.

But he made a flying start to life at the club after completing his £14million move.

In just his second game for Ralph Hasenhuttl's side, the Mali international scored in a 2-0 win at Brighton & Hove Albion.

He followed that up three weeks later by netting a stunning solo effort to seal a 1-0 win at Sheffield United, in what was his first Premier League start.

Unsurprisingly, it was named as the top-flight's goal of the month for September.

However, that proved to be where the problems began.

Djenepo did not feature again for Saints for more than a month due to a hip injury.

He returned to the squad in November and played regularly over the busy Christmas period, but is still waiting to add his tally of two goals for the club, over a year on from his Bramall Lane strike.

Off the pitch, the jovial and lively Djenepo is often described as the life and soul or joker of the training ground at Staplewood. However, he was hit by the tragic news of the death of his mother in February of this year, someone he described on Instagram as "the queen of my heart".

Having been granted time off to return to Mali for his mother's funeral, Djenepo returned to the Saints team the following week against Newcastle, but was sent off for poor first-half challenge on Isaac Hayden at St Mary's.

The visitors went on to win 1-0, in what turned out to be the final game for Saints before the Premier League was shut down due to coronavirus.

After three long months of lockdown, Djenepo was subsequently suspended for the first three games of Project Restart and after picking up a calf injury, did not play again for the remainder of the season.

However, he is now back to full fitness and has ended his six-month wait for football by featuring in all four of Saints' matches so far this campaign, starting each of the last two in the Premier League, including Saturday's win at Burnley.

And he is now ready to make up for some lost time.

Djenepo told the Daily Echo: "Yeah it was difficult, very, very difficult.

"I’ve had too many injuries, but the most important thing is to be strong, to try to work hard and to feel physically good. For the rest, it’s to try to take care of your health and your physique.

"I’m very happy now, I feel good.

"It was very difficult for me, but I was strong in my head and I know it’s a new country, new league, but now it’s okay. I feel good and I hope to continue to play."

Asked how different life is in England compared to Belgium, the 22-year-old added: "Everything changed.

"It’s not the same country, not the same league, a different league. You need to be focused to try to understand the league and to try to give your best.

"In pre-season, I had a good mentality to say - this season I want to score more goals and give assists to help the team."

While Djenepo's career at Saints has been stop-start on the pitch, off it he continues to make great strides.

Having arrived in the country with no grasp of the language at all, Djenepo is now able to converse and conduct interviews in English, having undergone lessons with a teacher once or twice a week.

Asked how he has found learning a new language, a modest Djenepo said: "It’s not bad. I can speak English a little bit, I’m happy."

But learning English is not the only new skill the Bamako-born ace has been learning off the pitch.

After some initial guidance from team-mate Jack Stephens at the training ground, Djenepo now professes to be one of the club's best darts players, despite having never played the game before arriving in Hampshire.

Music is another great passion for the winger, who was videoed dancing in the dressing room after winning at Burnley on Saturday.

"I am just always positive," he said.

"It was not because we won the game, I liked the song and that’s why I was dancing!"

And Djenepo has also taken steps to start creating his own music to dance along to.

"I started to play piano two weeks ago," he explained.

"Now I can play the Malian national anthem. It’s something I do sometimes, not all the time."

Quizzed on if any of his Saints team-mates can also play instruments, Djenepo added: "Shane (Long), he plays guitar and Danny (Ings) plays guitar, sometimes piano. Jack (Stephens) can play guitar also."

Reflecting on his first year at Saints as a whole, off the pitch, he said: "It was easy. If you have team-mates who can help you, the adaptation is very easy."

Before heading away for friendly games against Ghana and Iran with Mali next week, Djenepo will hope to keep his spot when Saints host West Brom on Sunday.

"We are very happy to have won our last game," he said.

"Now it’s a new week and we are focused for the next game to prepare and to try to get some points again.

"We prepare for this game with a good mentality to get some points before the international break."