2024 NFL Draft Prospect Interview: Yani Gouadfel, DB/P, Bishop’s University

- Name: Yani Gouadfel
- Position: Defensive Back/Punter
- College: Bishop’s University
- Height: 6’3
- Weight: 200 lbs
- Twitter: @YGouadfel
- Instagram: OneClyns
What makes you a top prospect at your position in the 2024 NFL Draft?
I’m a smart and versatile player, I can play every position and I am not scared to make a play and I’ll make a play
At what age were you first interested in the sport of football?
I started to be interested in football at the age 7 and I started playing at 14 years old
What is one thing that NFL teams should know about you?
Outside of football I have lived in three differents countries (Algeria, France, Canada) in three differents continents(Africa, Europe, North America) I think that I have a different vision of the world that most of the people around me
If you could donate to one cause in the world, what would it be?
I will give back to my home country in Algeria, especially my village where it’s very poor
What is the best advice you have ever received?
To follow my path and believe in God he won’t let me down
Who was your childhood hero?
My dad
Who is the most underrated teammate in your locker room at your school?
My friend Lokmen Nadjem who had a big knee injury and still haven’t return on the field but I know that he is one of the best athletes I have ever seen in my life and that when he will be back on the field he is going to kill it
Overcoming adversity is what defines character, what was the hardest moment in your life to overcome?
I torn my acl when I was 17 in Canada my whole family were in France and Algeria, I was all alone there could not work because of my recovery so I remember spending Christmas nd the whole winter alone, injured with no money in my bank account I was eating food sent from the church but I overcome that and the next season I had one of my best season ever
Tell me something about your school and why it is so special to you?
Bishop’s is an English school in a French city so all the players comes from everywhere in Canada but also the rest of the world (USA, Mexico, Europe) and the fact that everybody comes from a different place makes you meet and spend time with people you would have never talked to if it was not for football so I think that’s what makes this place great
What is your favorite snack food?
I like everything with chocolate
What is the best part of football?
The feeling of making a big play so the crowd making noise, your teammates jumping on you but also the fact that your play influenced the decision of the game
If you could sell yourself in one sentence what would you say?
I’m a cool guy that likes to laugh and have fun but knows when to be serious and not afraid to put the work in
If you could compare your play to one player in the NFL who would it be?
I would probably compare myself to Derwin James, he is to with great playmaking abilities and he is also versatile
If you could have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would it be and why?
I would probably go for Achilles, Muhammad Ali and my grand father, for the first two ones, I would like to feel their energy and try to impregnate myself with it to be inspired and understand what it means to be the greatest and how people see and respect you when you are. For my grandpa I just want to know more about his life, he didn’t raise my dad and he went to war been caught and tortured so I want to know how was that man who seems very close from me but also very far

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