Koko DC: "My mothers always ask me: what continent are you from?"

GironaHe has more than three million followers on YouTube and half a million on Instagram. YouTuber Robert PG. If you're over 35 and you've run into him on the street, you probably won't recognize him. But if he shows up in a school playground, he won't be able to escape the photo requests—I can confirm it. He's Koko Dembélé Coulibaly, better known on social media as Koko DC, and although he was born in Amer in 1994—"Puigdemont's village," as he explains with a broad smile—he considers himself a Girona native through and through. From the age of four, he grew up in the Can Gibert del Pla neighborhood with his eight siblings from two different mothers and a father who traveled back and forth to Mali. He studied at Maristes Girona, was recruited to play soccer for Germans Sàbat, loves running around the Devesa River, and if there's one place you'll find him partying, it's in the Plaza Independencia area.

Although his professional life is in Madrid, he claims he's never considered leaving. Now he's about to finish his acting studies. "I've always wanted to be an actor, and now I want to dedicate myself to doing stand-up comedy as well," he says, after having already debuted at some of the nights at the Fonda de El Foment. "This is one's own little world." influencer A man in love with Girona, dedicated to satirizing football, and urging us to visit our mothers more often and tell them we love them. He makes this point doubly: he has two mothers, born in Mali, like his father, and they have raised eight siblings who communicate with each other in Catalan. "I think and dream in Catalan," he asserts.

'CanGi'

Although he currently lives in the Químicos area, Koko DC still feels very much like the neighborhood where he grew up, "where everything happened" and "there were no timetables": Can Gibert del Pla. Located between the River Güell and the Santa Eugenia neighborhood, it's a humble neighborhood where 79 different cultures coexist, and the buildings are mostly subsidized housing. But it's surrounded by green spaces, public facilities, and a very fertile network of associations. "Eto'o came to the neighborhood center! I still have the photo we took!" he recalls, as well as a night when they got quite a scare coming back from the park when he was about ten years old and ran into a man wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a machine gun. "We called and he came running home," he explains.

One of his mothers still lives in "Cangi'," as many of the neighborhood's residents call him. It's also where he started making his first money on YouTube ten years ago. "Before I left for London, I made a video with Robert PG about FIFA that was a huge success: it got half a million views, which back then was like adding 6 or 10 million now," he says. "People kept telling Robert PG to bring that friend back." After the summer, upon their return, they recorded a second video that quickly reached a million. Fans were constantly asking: when would Koko DC open a YouTube account?

Marists Girona

"We created the channel on October 4th, and our expectation was to get around 25,000 followers; some friends had even ventured 50,000. But in 24 hours, I had 124,000 followers!" Koko DC explains with precision about her first steps. What did she like and still like about her videos? "They say it's spontaneity, naturalness, and humanity," she explains. "I'm surprised by everything, but I'm not aware of it." In her opinion, she does in front of the camera "the same thing she did in class." She says this in reference to the Maristes Girona school where she studied. "It's the place where I've had the most fun my whole life," although she clarifies that perhaps her teachers didn't have such a good time. However, she assures that she remembers them "with great affection."

Sabbath Brothers

It was on the Maristas' dirt football pitch that Koko DC began to excel in the sport. Not just him, but all his teammates. "I think we were the best generation to have spent time there. We were very good," he recalls. That's how he was quickly signed to play for Germans Sàbat: "The time when I learned the most and it left the biggest mark on me, because it was the worst period in terms of injuries." However, his style remains unmistakable: Ibai Llanos recognized him when he shot, with his face covered, in a Kings League video.

La Devesa

His career as a footballer, in which he won "more than two league titles" in just a few years, was cut short by injuries. Now, when he's not traveling, you can find him running around the Devesa Valley. It's one of the few places he's settled in. He admits that his biggest unfinished business is geography. "I travel a lot, but I don't know where I'm going," he says, laughingly recounting an anecdote about preparing for a long-haul flight when the trip was in London. "Nowadays, when I call my mom, she always asks: what continent are you on?" he says sarcastically about his busy schedule. Currently, two agencies manage his calendar, one as a content creator and the other as an actor, as he makes commercials and is also taking his first steps in series. This is the path he wants to further develop for the future, while maintaining his base of operations in Girona. First, with a one-and-a-half-hour monologue called Monologue and what he yearns to show. He talks about fears and how we confront them. He also talks about the fear of taking a leap and becoming more than just a content creator.