Iliman Ndiaye, Harlem Globetrotters-Style Moves and Sobering Football Stats

IS THERE REALLY A POSSIBILITY?

Unless you’ve missed the video of Iliman Ndiaye executing a reverse bouncing nutmeg at Everton’s training ground, it’s worth viewing. In executing a move so spectacular that it would have fit right in at a Harlem Globetrotters friendly display, the skill quickly concluded what was meant to be a informal game to finish what had been – up to that point – an informative discussion 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 expertly placed to discuss this topic. “Don’t focus on the rejection and one day your luck is going to come through,” he advised a young player shortly before deploying said ninja move on his teammate, in doing so clearly demonstrating the difference between Premier League and amateur footballers he had been attempting to dispel.

Ndiaye isn’t the first professional footballer to take things that little bit too far. A younger Michael Owen cheerfully overwhelming a 13-year-old goalkeeper in front of a annoyed Neville Southall is undoubtedly the prime example in this specific category – but the former Liverpool man is just one of many culprits. Both Christian Eriksen and Shinji Kagawa have reduced toddlers to actual tears with a series of brutal nutmegs, although it’s believed that the latter was at least motivated by the Japanese player’s social media disgrace caption – “this frustration makes a person stronger” – and the accompanying hashtag of #friendship.

Kagawa’s former Dortmund teammates Lukasz Piszczek, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Nuri Sahin at least had the good grace to be defeated against 100 children when the three competed during the interval of their last appearance for BVB. A Real Madrid XI that featured Cristiano Ronaldo and Xabi Alonso were more competitive when they took on 109 Chinese kids in a comparable scenario. But returning to the beginning, 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 harsh truth for toddlers and teenagers across the country.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Football took me but it never deserted me because I never gave up on my goal. I went from location to location. The devotion to the game propels you. I couldn’t always see where it was taking me. But today I have the understanding” – head coach Veljko Paunovic takes time out from his training to discuss his path.

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