Iliman Ndiaye, Globetrotters-Level Moves and Revealing Football Stats

YOU’RE TELLING US THERE’S A CHANCE?

If you haven’t seen the footage of Iliman Ndiaye performing a reverse bouncing nutmeg at Everton’s training ground, it’s a good watch. Through performing a move so nasty that it would have been appropriate at a Harlem Globetrotters friendly display, the skill instantly ended what was meant to be a lighthearted kickabout to wrap up what had been – up to that point – an illuminating interview about how amateur players can get another opportunity after being let go from professional academies.

Ndiaye, who competed in amateur leagues directly before being picked up by Sheffield United at 19, is expertly placed to speak on this topic. “Don’t focus on the rejection and one day your luck is going to come through,” he told a young player just before using said impressive trick on his victim, in doing so perfectly illustrating the gap between Premier League and amateur footballers he had been working to minimize.

Ndiaye isn’t the first professional footballer to go slightly overboard. Peak Michael Owen cheerfully overwhelming a 13-year-old goalkeeper in front of a smouldering Neville Southall is undoubtedly the prime example in this particular niche – but the former Liverpool man is not alone in this. Both Christian Eriksen and Shinji Kagawa have reduced toddlers to actual tears with a series of merciless tricks, although it’s believed that the latter was at least driven by the Japanese player’s social media apologetic post – “setbacks build character” – and the accompanying hashtag of #friendship.

Kagawa’s former Dortmund teammates Lukasz Piszczek, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Nuri Sahin at least had the decency to suffer a loss against 100 children when the trio lined up during the half-time break of their final match for BVB. A Real Madrid XI that contained Cristiano Ronaldo and Xabi Alonso showed less mercy when they took on 109 Chinese kids in a comparable scenario. But coming full circle, it’s calculated that only 180 of the 1.5 million boys currently playing organized youth football in England will ever appear in the Premier League, a stark reality for aspiring footballers across the country.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The game guided me but it never left me because I never stopped believing. I went from place to place. The devotion to the game carries you. I couldn’t always see where it was taking me. But today I have the solution” – Serbia coach Veljko Paunovic takes time out from his preparations to reflect on his career.

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