Iliman Ndiaye, Harlem Globetrotters-Style Moves and Revealing Football Statistics

YOU’RE TELLING US THERE’S A CHANCE?

If you haven’t seen the clip of Iliman Ndiaye executing a reverse bouncing nutmeg at Everton’s training ground, you should check it out. In executing a move so spectacular that it would have fit right in at a Harlem Globetrotters friendly display, the skill instantly ended what was meant to be a lighthearted kickabout to finish what had been – up to that point – an informative discussion about how Sunday league footballers can secure a fresh start after being let go from professional academies.

Ndiaye, who featured in non-league games directly before being recruited 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 come through,” he advised a young player shortly before deploying said spectacular skill on his opponent, in doing so perfectly illustrating the gulf between Premier League and amateur footballers he had been working to minimize.

Ndiaye is far from the only professional footballer to go slightly overboard. Peak Michael Owen cheerfully overwhelming a 13-year-old goalkeeper in front of a smouldering Neville Southall is clearly the benchmark in this unique area – but the former Liverpool man is just one of many culprits. Both Christian Eriksen and Shinji Kagawa have made young children cry with a series of brutal nutmegs, although it’s considered that the latter was at least inspired by the Japanese player’s social media regretful message – “difficulty breeds resilience” – and the associated label of #friendship.

Kagawa’s ex-BVB colleagues Lukasz Piszczek, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Nuri Sahin at least had the decency to be defeated against 100 children when the group played during the mid-game pause of their last appearance for BVB. A Real Madrid XI that contained Cristiano Ronaldo and Xabi Alonso were more competitive when they faced 109 Chinese kids in a similar experiment. But back to the start, 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 sobering statistic for young players across the country.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

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