Juwara: “I would like to return to Italy. Bologna? Europa League team”

This is the story of a varied and unforgettable journey, in every sense: you touch hell, you see heaven and now you are on the journey to see the stars again. Possibly in Italy but with a stop in Denmark. This is the story of Musa Juwara, a boy who has seen a lot but who, thanks to a goal, also managed to give his parents a house in Gambia. Here: but where has Musa gone? He’s up north, a striker for Vejle: and five years ago he took the train to the incredible world of fairy tales. As.

Here is Musa Juwara, now a twenty-three-year-old striker for Vejle (Danish championship), with a well-known and struggling past for having arrived alone in Italy on board a boat (on the Messina coast together with 536 other migrants) and having lived in pursuit (Virtus Avigliano, Chievo and then Bologna before current events) the so-called football dream: that on that 5 July 2020, Inter-Bologna 1-2, it comes true. In an overbearing, disruptive way. “I remember that it seemed like someone else was going to come on, then Sinisa got up from the bench and said: “No, I want Musa to come on”. We were losing and with one man less. I remember everything about that moment. A few minutes: my goal in the 1st -1”.

“Yes, I remember everything, for example how loud the noise was, because then in the following days everyone recognizes me, they know who I am, my story, they ask me everything. That afternoon I enter the changing room and it’s Carnival for our victory at San Siro, also because the other Musa, Barrow, came to me, hugged me and said: “Can I have your shirt”. and my story is talked about all over the world. It was a wonderful afternoon. The days after the goal my life really changed, I subsequently renewed my contract with Bologna and in the following months I was able to do something I had. always dreamed of: buying a house for my family in Gambia.”

Let’s rewind the tape: Mihajlovic believed in her.

“He was a second father. A splendid man. I miss him a lot. He saw me and trusted me, yes. Crazy trust, and not just on that day when he let me into San Siro. Above all, he loved me. Certainly I had to convince him…”.

“One day I go to his office. Mister, I tell him, let me play. I swear that I won’t disappoint you or betray you. We started talking, even about my story, because he was curious to know everything, how the games had really gone things, the journey to get to Italy etc. etc.: and I really told him everything, even those details that only I know, that no one knows. He was moved and told me “If you want, I can help you get the family to come from you.” There was a period when I hadn’t seen her for years. Sinisa’s heart was enormous: a unique man.”

To journalists, after that goal against Inter, Mihajlovic said: “If you keep asking me about him I won’t let him play anymore.”

“Yes, yes, I remember (he smiles, ed.). He wanted to protect me. He, Sabatini, my agents Pastorello and Grillo, many of them helped and advised me. Sinisa said he would let me play in the last match, against Torino. I wasn’t afraid of anyone, after that goal against Inter I was convinced I could rock the world also because in the meantime the call-up from my national team had arrived.”

“Then a new season begins and Sinisa doesn’t come to the training camp, everything we know begins. Many things change. I stay in Bologna and then the loan rumors begin. They offer me to go to Russia but I don’t feel like it, then in Portugal, in Cosenza and in short I also end up finding Thiago Motta but little by little I leave Bologna and go to Denmark.”

Is everything owned by the Vejle today?

“Bologna has twenty percent of the resale, as far as I know. I feel good: in the standings it’s not going great but as far as I’m concerned I scored 3 goals and made 2 assists while last year 4 goals and 7 assists in championship”.

“I would like to try again with Italy. Come back. But in the meantime I’ll finish the season with Vejle. Every now and then I remember those moments in Bologna and San Siro: I also get a bit nostalgic, but I know that in these years maybe I too can do something having made a mistake. When something like this happens to an eighteen-year-old, well, it happens that he gets in his head or loses his sense of reality. But now I’m much more mature and yes, I’d like to try again in Serie A.”

Do you know that Inter-Bologna is tomorrow?

“I like Bologna, a lot. Now that little by little everyone is coming back, well, it’s a Europa League team.”

What remains of that July 5, 2020 today?

“Lukaku’s shirt. ‘Start your long journey here, continue like this’ Romelu told me…”. See you soon, Musa.