Iliman Ndiaye, Globetrotters-Level Moves and Sobering Soccer Statistics

YOU’RE TELLING US THERE’S A CHANCE?

If you haven’t seen the video of Iliman Ndiaye executing 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 immediately shut down what was meant to be a casual practice to finish what had been – up to that point – an revealing conversation about how amateur players can secure a fresh start 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 discuss this topic. “Don’t concentrate on the rejection and one day your luck is going to materialize,” he advised a young player shortly before using said spectacular skill on his teammate, in doing so vividly showing the gap between Premier League and amateur footballers he had been working to minimize.

Ndiaye is far from the only professional footballer to go slightly overboard. Prime Michael Owen gleefully humiliating a young shot-stopper in front of a annoyed Neville Southall is undoubtedly the prime example in this specific category – but the former Liverpool man is not alone in this. Both Christian Eriksen and Shinji Kagawa have caused kids to weep with a series of harsh skills, although it’s considered that the latter was at least motivated by the Japanese player’s social media regretful message – “this frustration makes a person stronger” – and the accompanying hashtag of #friendship.

Kagawa’s previous Borussia partners Lukasz Piszczek, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Nuri Sahin at least had the decency to suffer a loss against 100 children when the group played during the interval of their final match for BVB. A Real Madrid XI that featured Cristiano Ronaldo and Xabi Alonso were not so generous when they faced 109 Chinese kids in a similar experiment. But back to the start, it’s approximated that only 180 of the 1.5 million boys currently playing structured junior soccer in England will ever feature in the Premier League, a sobering statistic for aspiring footballers across the country.

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DAILY HIGHLIGHT

“Soccer carried me but it never abandoned me because I never gave up on my goal. I went from location to location. The love of football carries you. I couldn’t always see where it was directing me. But today I have the answer” – Serbia coach Veljko Paunovic makes time from his training to reflect on his path.

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