“I don’t like to watch football all the time, the truth is I’m bored.”
John Duran is genuine and honest when he sits down to talk Sky Sports Ahead of Aston Villa’s big clash with Tottenham on Super Sunday.
But no one is bored of watching him this season.
The super subject, the author of sensational goals lit up the Premier League and the Champions League. There was speculation he could be sold in the summer. The talk now is whether he should dislodge Ollie Watkins as Villa’s front-line striker.
Listening to him open up about a variety of topics is as interesting as his playing is exciting.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is perhaps surprisingly the inspiration. “I love her for her personality,” Duran says. “His confidence, his ability to score, his temperament on the pitch. And he always said: “Why be like everyone else if you can be different?” So I like the way he approaches football and life, and I like that example.
“I like to be different. I like to do what’s good for me, what makes me feel good, not what everybody else wants me to do, and I think that will be the case until the day I’m gone. This is me. I’m going to try my best to be happy and I don’t care what people say outside, it’s me and my family and I’m here.”
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Following his heroics against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, we take a look at the four goals Aston Villa’s John Duran has scored as a substitute in the Premier League this season.
Colombian Duran owes his calmness and nerveless performances on the big stage to his background. “It’s instinctive, the upbringing where I come from, you always have to work for your food, people who don’t have anything to eat get nervous, I’m not nervous, I’m very confident in myself and I have this; in me.”
Son of a miner, Duran is proud of the fact that he was able to buy his mother a house. “I think it’s the most important challenge in my life. Thank God, I did it.” But behind his calm demeanor, his ambitions burn fiercely.
It has led to some heated discussions with boss Unai Emery.
“Sometimes there are love and hate moments. But no, I’m very thankful to him, very thankful to him and his coaching staff. We had many problems, but they are normal, I think,” he says. Duran:
“The truth is that I am very happy to be here with him, to share the space with him, to learn from his teachings. He wants to teach me all the time. He sometimes defends.
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At half-time at Villa Park, Aston Villa forward John Duran showed his good side by helping some young villains beat their competition by knocking their balls into the winning zone for them.
“Sometimes it happens and there are sparks. So we fight all the time. But I think that’s normal for a young man of my age and someone like him who already knows so much, who has already achieved so many things. And the truth is that I feel very, very grateful to be in this space and that he’s as great a person in football as he is learning more from him every day and I’m very happy with him here.
“Yes, sometimes we argue, because he has his point of view, I have mine, and I never shut up, if I have something to say, no matter who it is, I say it.”
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It’s clear Duran feels he deserves more playing time. That was certainly the case when he reacted angrily to being depressed after a rare start against Bologna in the Champions League last month.
But in Ollie Watkins, he realizes he has a talented team-mate to battle with for a role in the XI.
“Yeah, patience has never been my thing. I’ve never had the patience to be honest, but you’ve got to get it here,” says Duran. “Of course, Ollie is a great player, a great striker. He has shown a lot, he has helped us a lot. Last season, the last two seasons, he was unbelievable. He is a wonderful person.
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All the best angles from John Duran’s stunning winner for Aston Villa as they beat Everton 3-2 at Villa Park.
“You have to be patient and I keep working and when the opportunity comes I will do what Ollie does and help the team. I am very happy to have competition, healthy competition with the star from England, as he is now.”
Does Duran feel that his patience is getting better? “About two percent.
“Now I’m waiting a little, before I used to collect arguments every day, now I’m waiting a day for that, so it’s different.
“I think (Watkins) is having his moment and you have to respect that. Because he has the numbers, he does the work, he has everything, he has the understanding, the experience, and I think I’m on my way, that I’m at the level that I keep working to get a little better.
John Duran has outplayed Ollie Watkins despite little playing time this season
“And for me it’s very important because in the future we don’t know if what’s happening now can happen in another team, I don’t know. Nobody knows the future. But I think it’s also part of life, part of work. “Especially being mentally strong, because those are questions that as a young man, you see the numbers he has this season, and I want that to set you up a little bit going forward.”
And in the future, Duran believes that Villa can achieve “great things”. Reflecting on how close he came to leaving in the summer and his role now, he says: “Yes, I think there were rumors. As a young man, the leader goes to other places. But there was always full support from Una, (president of football operations) Monchi and above all from Damian (Vidagani, director of football operations).
“Three of them are important pillars in this club. They have achieved a lot in a short time and have helped me a lot. They were very valuable to me because they kept me grounded, told me the right things to do. So I think it helps the mind in a way and they don’t know that the start of the season was about my mind.
“Having experience, we will do great things and we are working for it, thanks to them we are here and I am happy here.”
The next chapters of Duran’s Villa career look set to be dull.
