INTERVIEW: "I need to enjoy football again" – Christopher Nkunku on returning to RB Leipzig and his struggles at Chelsea and AC Milan | OneFootball

LEIPZIG (Bulinews): After three years, the red balloon was back at the Red Bull Arena on Sunday as RB Leipzig thrashed Hamburger SV 5-0 in the Bundesliga.

Christopher Nkunku scored his first goal since returning on loan from AC Milan and celebrated in style, bringing back his trademark balloon celebration in front of the home crowd.

A fan favourite during his first spell at the club, Nkunku was named Bundesliga Player of the Season in 2021/22 and helped Leipzig win two DFB-Pokal trophies and reach the Champions League semi-finals before joining Chelsea for a €60 million fee in 2023.

However, things never really worked out for the Frenchman in London, and he moved on to AC Milan for €37 million in the summer of 2025. Just 12 months later, he was on the move again, with Leipzig offering him a chance to restart his career where it all took off.

Now back at the Red Bull Arena on a season-long loan deal, Nkunku has one major objective: to rediscover his joy for football.

“In my situation, I need to enjoy football again, to just think about football, play games and be on the pitch to do what I want to do. It was the best option for me,” Nkunku told Bulinews.com and other selected media at a roundtable interview in Leipzig, explaining why he chose to return to the club where he enjoyed the best spell of his career.

The 28-year-old had other options, but quickly realised that Leipzig was the right move for him.

“At the moment, it was the best option for me. When I spoke with the coach and the management, we were all convinced that this season would be good for me and for the club also. We didn’t hesitate one moment and pushed for the deal," he explained. 

“I don't feel under pressure”

Returning to a club where he flourished naturally brings expectations, but Nkunku insists he does not feel weighed down by them.

“I don’t feel under pressure. I learned a lot in these three years and gained some experience," he said. 

At 28, Nkunku is now one of the more experienced players in a young Leipzig squad. And while he admits that taking on a leadership role doesn't come naturally to him, he is ready to use what he has learned to help the next generation.

“I know what I can bring to the team, and part of it is giving advice to the young players and helping them understand what it’s like playing at the highest level,” the Frenchman explained.

“It’s difficult for me because I’m a reserved guy, so I’m always focused on my own things. But now, I feel this is the moment for me to share something also because the young generation needs help and to understand what it’s like playing at a high level. I try to develop this step of my career.

“This is something I need to do, this is my role now and something I need to work on, but at the moment I’m a new player. Even if I know the club, I need to understand and know my teammates. It’s a process.”

When Nkunku was coming through at Paris Saint-Germain, it made a significant difference for him to have experienced star players around him.

“When I was young, a lot of players taught me stuff and gave me advice. Even today, I think about this advice.

“I remember at PSG, some of the big players like [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic, Dani Alves and Thiago Silva, who I also played with at Chelsea, gave me some advice to be efficient in training, every game and every minute to give the best,” Nkunku recalled.

“The thing is, when you move into the first-team squad, you’re a little bit shy, you have a lot of respect for the players, and sometimes you don’t want to push your limits because you have some respect. But at that moment, it’s not possible to have this, and in some situations, they told us that directly.” 

The wrong timing

Reflecting on his time at Chelsea and why things never quite clicked, Nkunku pointed to the timing of his arrival and the serious knee injury he suffered shortly before the start of his first season.

The injury ruled him out for the majority of the first half of the 2023/24 campaign, and when he finally returned, his eagerness to make up for lost time only created further problems.

“It’s about timing, because when I arrived, everything was going well. But then I had surgery for the first time at the end of pre-season. That’s not a good moment for a player, because you need to finish your pre-season. I didn’t start the season with the team. For me, it was also a new club with new teammates. When you’re injured, it’s complicated to get to know your teammates,” Nkunku explained.

“So after that, I wanted to come back fast. I didn’t listen to my body, because I was young and wanted to come back fast and play and train with the squad. So after that, I had a lot of small injuries, like muscle injuries. So the first season wasn’t good when it came to my condition and physical problems.”

Nkunku went into his second season at Chelsea with renewed optimism after a good pre-season. But the arrival of Enzo Maresca, who replaced Mauricio Pochettino as head coach, changed the picture.

“I came back well for the second season and had a good pre-season, but I think the coach had a different idea, and I needed to accept that, train and play when I had the opportunity to play,” Nkunku said.

According to Nkunku, Maresca’s system limited him to one position, where another player was ahead of him in the pecking order.

“He had a system, where I could maybe play only one position. But he preferred to play another player or put me in another position. I had to respect that. I said that maybe I could play in another position, but he was the boss, so he decided.

“So you continue to work for yourself, but also for your teammates. When you have the opportunity to play, you try to play. That’s what I tried to do,” Nkunku said.

He also found himself being used in a way that didn't necessarily bring out the best in him.

“I want to be close to goal, I want to create chances and finish them also. I don’t have one position, but I’m an offensive player,” he said.

“At Chelsea, it was more like, ‘you need to stay in your position’. If you play as a winger, you need to stay on the line and just do 1-v-1. This is something I can do, but not all the game, because I need to switch positions.” 

Adjusting to Italy

After the 2024/25 season, Nkunku’s Chelsea stint came to an end with 18 goals and five assists in 62 appearances, as he departed for AC Milan.

But Italy proved to be another difficult adjustment. After scoring eight goals and providing three assists in 35 games in his first season, Nkunku was told he was free to leave once again – a decision he recently admitted came as a surprise.

Part of the challenge was adapting to a different style of football, with Nkunku describing Italy’s more defensive approach as “very difficult” to adjust to after the high-tempo, end-to-end football he had become accustomed to in Germany and England.

“In Italy, I think teams play not to concede goals. It’s more defensive. After one team scores, it’s complicated to score. And even the team who scored the first goal doesn’t think about scoring a second one. It’s very, very difficult.

“I saw it last year. It was very difficult because I was always thinking about going up to score, but you need to stay behind to protect your goal,” Nkunku added.

“Of course, if you think individually, you’re frustrated. But we play football. It’s a collective sport, so you need to think about the squad and to do what the coach wants and to reach the target of the idea.” 

“I haven't had regularity for three years”

Now back in Leipzig, Nkunku is hoping to rediscover something that has been missing since he left Germany: consistency. And if he can find it, a return to the French national team is firmly on his radar.

“Of course it’s a target,” he said when asked about potentially earning a call-up from new France coach Zinedine Zidane.

“Even before, it was a target. You know the quality of the squad, and I can reach this for sure, but it’s about timing and also to be able to play game by game and to be decisive.

“When I made the national team for the first time, it was because I was decisive and played well, and this is a target for me. I need the regularity because I haven’t had regularity for three years.

“After that, it’s about performance every time. If you have 10 good games and then one bad one, then you forgot the 10 games. That’s football, and I like it.”

That relentless focus on consistency is a mindset Nkunku is eager to bring to Leipzig. He has already been impressed by new head coach Martin Demichelis and believes the young squad has the potential to achieve big things this season once they have had time to gel – provided they show the right mentality on the pitch.

“I think everything is possible. Leipzig have a lot of young talented players every season. But I think it’s about mentality," he said.

“We just take it game by game. We need to be focused on that we can beat any team. We have shown that in the past. So it’s about mentality and taking it from game to game, and at the end of the season, we’ll see what we have done.”

Following back-to-back defeats to Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga and Como in the Champions League, Leipzig returned to winning ways in emphatic fashion against Hamburger SV, with the 5-0 victory lifting them to fifth in the Bundesliga table.

For Nkunku, though, the result means more than just three points. After three difficult years, the balloon is back – and his journey to rediscover his love for football has begun.