Africa-Press – Senegal. Le milieu de terrain sénégalais de Sheffield United, Ilimane Ndiaye, n’en finit plus de briller en Championship (2e division anglaise). Il ajoute à ses belles performances une place dans l’équipe type de la saison.
Arrived in this English club in 2019, Ndiaye, aged 24, is having one of the best seasons of his career. His fine performances will have strongly contributed to his club’s second place two days before the end of the championship, synonymous with a rise in the Premier League next season.
Author, this year, of 14 goals and nine assists against seven goals and two assists, last year, the native of Rouen (France) confirms all the potential detected in him by the former international football El Hadji Ousseynou Diof.
The Lions striker (1998-2015) already hailed the performance of his younger brother and compatriot, Ilimane, whom he considered promising for the “future of Senegalese football”.
“I ask him to keep his feet on the ground and to work well as he is used to doing,” said the double winner of the African Golden Ball in an interview.
Precisely, Ilimane Ndiaye, passionate about football and dribbling since his early childhood, has since then only had work in his sights. « From 4 to 19 years old, I was trained by my father. I never felt any pressure from him. But he had understood from the age of four that I only lived through football, » he told the French newspaper L’Equipe.
Renowned for his beautiful and successful dribbles, the Sheffield number 29 is inspired in his creativity with the ball by his Brazilian idols Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Rivaldo, but above all by a choreographer father who did not hesitate to share his art to inspire ball technique. at the foot of this star seed.
The objective of signing a pro contract, neither the father nor the son have ever lost sight of it. Not even when one day a recruiter told his father: “He will never be a professional footballer.” Or even when he still couldn’t find a training center at 18.
“Me, I never considered failure,” he says with conviction in the French newspaper.
Perseverance and hard work always paid off, and it was at the age of 19 that the attacking midfielder was spotted by Sheffield United “in a tournament which brings together the best university players”. At the end, a pro contract with the under 23s when neither Ilimane Ndiaye nor Abdoulaye, his father, were hardly expecting him anymore.
“I’m playing my first pro game with Sheffield in March 2021 and not even two years later I find myself playing the World Cup. It was crazy,’ he said.
Luck having smiled on the Ndiaye family, it was around the national team to summon the player on June 4, 2022, against Benin in a qualifying match for the 2024 African Cup of Nations. , 3-0.
Even if he had not hidden his dream of evolving under the colors of Olympique de Marseille (Ligue 1, France), it is nevertheless a dozen Premier League clubs which are interested in the midfielder whose the contract with Sheffield will end in June 2024.
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