A promise from the Dijon training center, the young Cheikhna Senghor confided in our colleagues from Onze Mondial about his training, his qualities, but also his ambitions with the DFCO. Interview.
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Can you introduce yourself to the readers of Onze Mondial and tell your story?
I was born on January 1, 2003 in Dakar, Senegal, but I grew up in France at the ZUP de Beauvais, with my siblings and my mother. We were four children. I started playing football at the age of 8, in the Portuguese Beauvais club, then I joined AS Beauvais Oise, then Chantilly and finally I signed to the DFCO. At school, I wasn’t necessarily a good student (smile). But it’s okay, we’ll say. I left school two years ago, since I returned to the Dijon training center.
How is your adventure in Dijon going?
It’s going well, I have adapted well to my new life, the club trusts me. He is very much behind me and helps me to become a professional footballer.
“I have confidence in myself and I know that I will get there”
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Are there big differences compared to your previous clubs?
It is much more serious. In Dijon, there are other good players who are there and I have to put in a lot more effort. In Beauvais, I was a little above, unlike Dijon. I have to increase my level. In training, I am a serious person, I am focused and I make the effort.
What is your assessment since your arrival in 2018?
I was recruited in 2017, but I only joined the club in 2018. I am progressing more and more. I try to scratch matches. I evolve with the U18s, but I managed to play a few games with the reserve team in National 3. It’s good. But I’m not knocking on the professional group door yet. I think it will come over time. The coaches tell me to work, to stay tuned and serious off the pitch. To get there, I work outside. If I work, I can only be successful. I work out the muscles, I try to improve my weak points. Physically, I am not a strong person. I have to be solid on my feet.
What’s your typical day in Dijon?
I wake up at 8 am, I have breakfast at the training center until 9 am. Then I get ready. We start training at 9:30 am until 11:00 am. At noon, I eat and then I rest, before a new workout at 5:30 p.m. We finish this second training around 7 p.m. I go back to the center, towards the self service for the meal. And in the evening, I am free, I decompress in my room.
What are your qualities and your faults?
I am a player who dribbles, fast and sees the game well. My weak point is that I do not use my left foot enough. It is to work. My preferred position is left midfielder / left winger even though I am versatile. I regularly evolve in a 4-3-3 so it’s the best way to express my qualities and get back on my right foot.
What do your coaches tell you since the start of your career?
To have confidence in myself and to believe in it, because I have potential. Then you have to work. It will come by itself. I have confidence in myself and I know that I will get there.
“I want to be a top player”
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What is your best football memory?
When I scored against Lyon during my first year at DFCO, in U17. I was a U16 player and it was a close game. It was the first time that I played against a club like this. On a cross, the ball arrives outside the area, I hit and I score. I didn’t think too much in the process, I ran and I went to see the others, I shouted (smile).
We have probably already told you, but you have the same name as the former president of Senegal …
Yes, Léopold Sédar Senghor. It is often taken out to me even if it is not from the same family (smile).
What link do you have with your country of birth, Senegal?
It’s been a long time since I left there. It is my country of heart. I was born there, I stayed there until I was 5, and my family still lives there. I will do anything to make them proud. I have no touch with the youth teams of Senegal, but I closely follow the results of selection A. I had for example watched the CAN final against Algeria in the summer of 2019.
How do you see the rest of your career?
I want to be a top player and play for a big club. I don’t know what big club, but whoever comes, I’ll go. In the short term, I think I can join the professional group of DFCO. Over time, it should happen.
If you had to quote a sentence that represents you, what would it be?
I am a proud person, I have confidence in myself and I know my qualities. Confidence has been in me since my arrival at DFCO. I started to develop that when I saw how football was, I started to understand. Before, I didn’t know certain things. When I arrived, I saw what life was like. I felt a little inferior to the players at the training center. At first, I had a hard time because I fell with players with the same qualities as me, I was forced to learn, improve and level up.
What job would you have wanted to do if you hadn’t devoted yourself to football?
Honestly, in my head, there is only football. I am bound to succeed. I do not have a choice. I know I will succeed (smile). I put that in my head, since I was little.
How many times have you lied during this interview?
Not once ! 0 times! I only said the truth, nothing but the truth, the whole truth.
How do you rate your interview?
5/10. I’m hard on myself, like soccer. I struggled at first, then I started to gain confidence.
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