Ndiaye, Harlem Globetrotters-Level Skills and Revealing Football Stats

IS THERE REALLY A POSSIBILITY?

Unless you’ve missed the footage of Iliman Ndiaye executing a reverse bouncing nutmeg at Everton’s training ground, you should check it out. By pulling off a move so nasty that it would have suited perfectly at a Harlem Globetrotters exhibition match, the skill quickly concluded what was meant to be a casual practice to conclude what had been – up to that point – an illuminating interview about how non-professionals can get another opportunity after being released by professional academies.

Ndiaye, who featured in non-league games directly before being recruited by Sheffield United at 19, is expertly placed to address this topic. “Avoid dwelling on the rejection and one day your luck is going to arrive,” he advised a young player immediately prior to using said impressive trick on his opponent, in doing so clearly demonstrating the gap between Premier League and amateur footballers he had been trying to bridge.

Ndiaye is far from the only professional footballer to push the boundaries. A younger Michael Owen gleefully humiliating 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 caused kids to weep with a series of brutal nutmegs, although it’s believed that the latter was at least inspired by the Japanese player’s social media apologetic post – “difficulty breeds resilience” – and the associated label of #friendship.

Kagawa’s former Dortmund teammates Lukasz Piszczek, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Nuri Sahin at least had the manners to be defeated against 100 children when the three lined up during the interval of their farewell game 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 like situation. But returning to the beginning, it’s approximated that only 180 of the 1.5 million boys currently playing organized youth football in England will ever appear in the Premier League, a stark reality 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 place to place. The devotion to the game carries you. I couldn’t always see where it was leading me. But today I have the answer” – national team manager Veljko Paunovic makes time from his planning to discuss his path.

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