Ndiaye, Globetrotters-Style Moves and Revealing Football Statistics

IS THERE REALLY A POSSIBILITY?

Unless you’ve missed 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 nasty that it would have been appropriate at a Harlem Globetrotters show game, the skill instantly ended what was meant to be a informal game to conclude what had been – up to that point – an illuminating interview about how non-professionals can earn a second chance after being dropped from professional academies.

Ndiaye, who played Sunday League football directly before being recruited by Sheffield United at 19, is expertly placed to discuss this topic. “Avoid dwelling on the rejection and one day your luck is going to materialize,” he told a young player immediately prior to using said impressive trick on his opponent, in doing so vividly showing the difference between Premier League and amateur footballers he had been attempting to dispel.

Ndiaye joins a list of professional footballer to go slightly overboard. A younger Michael Owen gleefully humiliating a 13-year-old goalkeeper in front of a annoyed Neville Southall is clearly the benchmark in this specific category – 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 brutal nutmegs, 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 related tag of #friendship.

Kagawa’s former Dortmund teammates Lukasz Piszczek, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Nuri Sahin at least had the good grace to suffer a loss against 100 children when the group played 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 played against 109 Chinese kids in a similar experiment. But coming full circle, it’s calculated that only 180 of the 1.5 million boys currently playing competitive youth leagues in England will ever feature in the Premier League, a stark reality for young players across the country.

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DAILY HIGHLIGHT

“The game guided me but it never abandoned me because I never stopped believing. I went from location to location. The devotion to the game carries you. I couldn’t always see where it was directing me. But today I have the understanding” – national team manager Veljko Paunovic makes time from his planning to discuss his career.

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“Together with some co-workers and mates, I play a game of football each Friday afternoon. Our oldest player is pushing 80, while the least experienced are in their twenties. To ensure a positive atmosphere for everyone, we have a basic guideline regarding the skill level: you can be fast or skilled, but ideally not both. We periodically have players who break this guideline, but usually manage to drag them down to our level over time” – Lars Esbjerg.