Ndiaye, Globetrotters-Level Moves and Sobering Soccer Stats

COULD IT ACTUALLY HAPPEN?

If you haven’t seen the footage of Iliman Ndiaye pulling off a reverse bouncing nutmeg at Everton’s training ground, it’s a good watch. In executing a move so spectacular that it would have suited perfectly at a Harlem Globetrotters friendly display, the skill instantly ended what was meant to be a casual practice to conclude what had been – up to that point – an revealing conversation about how Sunday league footballers 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 perfectly positioned to discuss this topic. “Don’t focus on the rejection and one day your luck is going to materialize,” he advised a young player just before deploying said impressive trick on his victim, 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 go slightly overboard. A younger Michael Owen cheerfully overwhelming a young shot-stopper in front of a fuming Neville Southall is undoubtedly the prime example in this unique area – but the one-time Reds forward 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 good grace to lose their match against 100 children when the group competed during the half-time break of their last appearance for BVB. A Real Madrid XI that contained Cristiano Ronaldo and Xabi Alonso showed less mercy when they played against 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 play in the Premier League, a harsh truth for young players across the country.

BROADCAST ON MAJOR PLATFORM

Tune in with Scott Murray from 7.45pm GMT for live international football action of England versus Serbia, while Luke McLaughlin will be monitoring the action for the other games happening later.

DAILY HIGHLIGHT

“Soccer carried me but it never left me because I never gave up on my goal. I went from team to team. The devotion to the game drives you. I couldn’t always see where it was leading me. But today I have the solution” – national team manager Veljko Paunovic pauses briefly from his planning to share his path.

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