Adama Traore interview: The truth behind the baby oil, growing up in Barcelona and Conor Coady's captaincy
It has become one of the most intriguing rituals of Wolves’s season. In the moments before kick-off, a member of staff will run on to the field, whip out a bottle of baby oil and frantically lather the arms of Adama Traore.
The ritual began as a shrewd plan to protect his shoulder, after he dislocated it four times last season, but Traore quickly noticed an additional benefit: defenders could no longer grip his arms as they attempted to stop him speeding away down the wing.
It means that Traore, already one of the fastest players in the Premier League, is now even harder to stop and has given whole new meaning to the expression “greased lightning”.
“With the oil, it’s now impossible for players to grab me, especially if I’m moving as well,” Traore says this week, speaking for the first time about the unusual tactic.
“The staff here had a very clever idea because they knew I was having problems with my shoulder and said I should try it. Opponents were taking my arm and it kept popping out.
“In the first game it was very funny because many players grabbed my arm and they couldn’t catch me. They were asking, ‘What happened’ and I kept saying I didn’t know!
“It’s important for me because now the players have to use another tactic. Before they were trying to grab my arm and it was tough. Now I have the oil on my arm, they will slip.”
Wolves’s opponents at Molineux today, Newcastle, will be aware of Traore’s threat as he is now unquestionably one of the most feared attacking players in the Premier League.
His progress under Nuno Espirito Santo over the past 18 months has been remarkable, a prime example of the Portuguese’s coaching abilities on the training field, and earlier this month he made his debut for Spain. Wolves are in talks with him over a new contract.
He is speaking at Wolves’s training ground, via Zoom, on a range of subjects, from his upbringing in L’Hospitalet to religion and Conor Coady’s transformation into a deadly goal machine.
Sunday roast dinners also get a mention. “I love them,” he says, laughing. “I don’t eat pork [he is a Muslim] but I have everything else: roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, gravy. I can’t eat them every time but I do like the Sunday dinners, mixed with some sauce.
“I’ve been living in England for a long time now, so I know the habits of a cup of tea and Sunday dinners. It’s a beautiful thing. In Spain I was used to the culture of eating at 10pm, whereas here in England it’s 7pm. I like to know different cultures and how people think.”
Traore is fluent in Catalan, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Bambara, the national language of Mali, and points to his early life in L’Hospitalet as pivotal in his development as a footballer. He lived close to the Nou Camp, with parents Baba and Fatoumata, brother Moha and sister Asa, later making his debut for Barcelona’s first team at the age of 17 amid the intense glare of the media.
Before graduating from Barcelona’s La Masia youth academy, his early years were sometimes tough in the Catalan city, where crime rates were high and gangs prevalent.
“It is a good place but there were some gang things and my little brother and I used to play against them a lot, when I was 14,” he says. “You could play against a gang guy and whatever was going on in his personal life, he would forget that, and all that would matter would be football in that time.
“We would play tournaments, five against five. People used to know us, because I played in Barcelona and my brother played at Espanyol.”
Traore cites Ronaldinho as a huge inspiration growing up, and remembers a famous night in 2003 when the Brazilian forward made his Barcelona debut. “The game was after midnight against Sevilla and they were giving people free food to watch the game. The stadium was still full. I was only seven so I watched it the next day, but I heard it all. I could hear the shouting and the noise in my bed.
“It was amazing, and magical, because at that time people were only happy when Ronaldinho was starting. Barcelona couldn’t challenge Real Madrid, because they won everything – but then he came in.”
Traore, 24, smiles when he thinks of all the experiences he has already crammed in. There was the move to Aston Villa in August 2015, then a spell with Middlesbrough, where he established his reputation under the guidance of Tony Pulis. After moving to Wolves for £18 million in August 2018, he is now a key figure in the upward trajectory under Nuno. The pace and direct running were always there, but the manager has polished the rough edges to ensure Traore is a more rounded player, capable of playing in a number of positions.
He says: “Nuno has helped me a lot, but it is his staff as well. I think I’ve been working hard with them. The important thing is that Nuno wants us to improve and he is a massive part of my progress. If I can play as a striker or as a winger in certain moments it makes me more difficult to mark. It is more difficult to know what I am going to do, and that is good for me.”
Wolves face Newcastle on the back of two successive victories, with Traore poised to start after impressing as a substitute against Leeds on Monday.
With no European commitments this season, Wolves are aiming to improve on their seventh place from the past two years. Their success is built on a strong team spirit, with Traore offering an insight into the dressing room’s togetherness following Coady’s goal for England against Wales this month – the defender’s first since April 2018.
“Everybody was laughing about it. He’s an amazing person and a great captain, but I never imagined him scoring. When he scored against Wales everybody was straight onto our WhatsApp group. “When he came back to training we said, ‘What is going on? Now you have to play as the striker!’ ”
