Ndiaye, Harlem Globetrotters-Level Moves and Sobering Football Stats

COULD IT ACTUALLY HAPPEN?

If you haven’t seen the video of Iliman Ndiaye executing a backwards bouncing trick at Everton’s training ground, it’s a good watch. Through performing a move so nasty that it would have fit right in at a Harlem Globetrotters show game, the skill quickly concluded what was meant to be a informal game to conclude what had been – up to that point – an revealing conversation about how amateur players can earn a second chance after being dropped from professional academies.

Ndiaye, who competed in amateur leagues directly before being signed by Sheffield United at 19, is perfectly positioned to address this topic. “Don’t concentrate on the rejection and one day your luck is going to materialize,” he advised a young player shortly before executing said spectacular skill on his teammate, in doing so perfectly illustrating the gulf between Premier League and amateur footballers he had been working to minimize.

Ndiaye joins a list of professional footballer to push the boundaries. Peak Michael Owen cheerfully overwhelming a young shot-stopper in front of a fuming Neville Southall is clearly the benchmark in this unique area – but the ex-Anfield star is not alone in this. Both Christian Eriksen and Shinji Kagawa have made young children cry with a series of merciless tricks, although it’s thought that the latter was at least inspired by the Japanese player’s social media regretful message – “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 lose their match against 100 children when the group competed during the interval of their final match for BVB. A Real Madrid XI that featured Cristiano Ronaldo and Xabi Alonso showed less mercy when they faced 109 Chinese kids in a comparable scenario. But coming full circle, it’s approximated that only 180 of the 1.5 million boys currently playing structured junior soccer in England will ever play in the Premier League, a stark reality for aspiring footballers across the country.

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DAILY HIGHLIGHT

“The game guided me but it never deserted me because I never stopped believing. I went from team to team. The passion for soccer drives you. I couldn’t always see where it was directing me. But today I have the answer” – head coach Veljko Paunovic makes time from his training to discuss his path.

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