On the Hauts de Rouen, no one has forgotten the Senegalese striker and his exploits with the ball at his feet. His former teammates and coaches tell us about the first footballing steps of a player destined for a great destiny.
“It was impressive! He had an incredible technique and ease with the ball. He already had everything of a professional athlete at the age of 10. He had the endurance, the technique and the mind!”
Mohamed Mansour Dia still has stars in his eyes at the mere mention of his former teammate. Supporter of Marseille, he savors the recent signing of Iliman Ndiaye at OM. “I’m thrilled and I think Iliman too! At 9 years old, he was already talking to us about becoming a professional player with Olympique de Marseille and the Golden Ball! The Ballon d’Or is his biggest dream..”
To enter the pantheon of the greatest footballers on the planet, it will still be necessary to wait but at 23 years old, the nugget of Sapins is successfully following its roadmap.
He was greeted like a rock star when he arrived at Marignane airport in the middle of the night, the epilogue of a transfer obtained after long negotiations with his former club, Sheffield United. The Marseille supporters are already enthusiastic about the very technical profile of the young man who has always proclaimed his love for OM.
“It was a pride to have been his teammate. We knew that when we played with him we were going to win the match. Even in the last minutes, if we lost, we knew that by giving him the ball it was going to end in the goals !”remembers Younes Ayachi with whom Iliman won his first trophies.
Iliman Ndiaye and his teammates in 2009 • © Black Abdel Roy
Last little Iliman, the dad is never far away with his camera. It was he who accompanied him every day to concoct skillfully thought-out training sessions on the stabilized terrain of Les Sapins. A place made famous thanks to many videos, now viral on the webwhich his father made to immortalize his son’s prowess.
“This is the field where Iliman trained every morning before going to school with his father. With all the right equipment to do good workouts! Like what there is no need to have new generation grounds, a ball and a little space is enough to train at this age. He never stopped and it was a real pleasure for him“, tells us Anthony Desoutter, coach at Rouen Sapins FC.
“The dad was a former freestyle dancer”, specifies Hassen Talani, Iliman’s U10 coach.“He made him work a lot on dance steps without the ball. Gestures that he was then able to apply with the ball. On the pitch, it’s true that his dribbling was different. Football is innate for him, there are players like that who have a star above their heads“.
Hassen kept in touch with the Ndiaye family. The day the Senegalese striker signed for Olympique de Marseille, he was able to congratulate Iliman’s father by phone.
Iliman Ndiaye’s father in discussion with members of Rouen Sapins FC • © France Télévisions
“Ilman without the Sapins is not Iliman! It’s always in his heart, he often talks to me about it”,recalled the father of the young prodigy who wanted to thank the educators of FC Rouen Sapin for the work done with his son for many years.
At Les Sapins, he took his first steps as a footballer but he also received an education and this is the strong point of Hauts de Rouen. It was there that he learned a lot of things and that can’t be taken away from you. You brought him love and you taught him to share. If he had had a negative training at Les Sapins, he would not have joined FC Rouen, the OM training center, the Dakar Sacré-Coeur academy and England. This education and this discipline opened all doors for him.
Abdel Ndiaye, Father of Iliman
After the Sapins, Iliman joined the FC Rouen club for 2 years under the leadership of Stéphane Arnold. “It was maddening what he was doing! He was taking the ball and he was dribbling everyone like on TV. He was a small build but with the ball he did abnormal things for a kid of his age.. He then went through OM and followed his dad to Senegal where he joined the Dakar Sacré-Coeur Academy. He has an atypical career but he got his way and the Marseille fans will certainly enjoy this player!”
Regulars at the Vélodrome stadium ask for nothing better. A show to which his former partners of the Sapins have promised to attend. In the Marseille city, they will be able to see Iliman capsize the opposing defenders and the hearts of Marseille supporters.
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