Juan Bernat says David Alaba, Joshua Kimmich were role models for him at Bayern Munich

Juan Bernat has enjoyed a fine start to his 2019/2020 campaign in Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain, as the reigning French champions currently sit in the top spot in the table and have won their opening two matches in the Champions League. He’s started in all but two of PSG’s competitive matches thus far and has also tallied 5 assists from those 10 appearances across all competitions.

In a recent interview with Spanish outlet MARCA (via SportBild), Bernat spoke about some of the personal changes he’s made since joining PSG in 2018. And he also revealed who some of his role models were during his time at Bayern Munich. His diet, he revealed, is something he decided to tweak once he went to Paris:

I tried to perfect everything. I also changed my diet a little. I tried to improve it and change some habits. I feel very good physically and I notice it on the pitch.

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Playing left-back at Bayern was also something he said he had to work to adapt to, because it was not always his preferred position:

I did not assess it correctly. In the end, I adapted. It’s true that soccer has changed very much, that outside-backs today are much more offensive and almost always attack, especially at teams like Bayern München or PSG.

In addition to Barcelona’s Jordi Alba and Real Madrid’s Marcelo, Bernat revealed that both David Alaba and Joshua Kimmich were role models for him while he was at Bayern. Kimmich was especially an influence for him given his ability to play both central midfield and right back. He said, when asked about his inspirations:

Jordi Alba, who is also my friend. Another one is Marcelo, a fantastic left-back. And another from whom I learned a lot is David Alaba

It is perhaps no surprise that Bernat prefers Kimmich at right-back:

He played in the mdifield and then switched to the side. For me, he is one of the best at the 2 [i.e., right-back]. His performances every season speak for themselves.

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