Arona Fall (17) is a sparkling talent from Dakar, Senegal. He masters the scissors movement as if it were no effort. He is lightning fast, always asks for the ball with passionate gestures, shoots with left and right, passes, looks for the opponent, takes risks and regularly scores in the training match. Sometimes he makes a noise when they kick him.
Neymar is his favorite footballer. Or else Dembele and Mbappe. dribblers. Footballers with adventure in their legs, just like him. After a match between the Dutch Senegalese Football Academy, he talks about his ambitions in the shadow of a white wall around the artificial turf. “Moving to Europe, to play football at the top and give something back to my family.” He has been playing football at the academy since he was 8 years old. He only sees family during the holidays. “My father has four wives.” How many (half) brothers and sisters does he have? “I don’t know exactly, around 23.”
Van der Valk
Fall is in demand, as one of the jewels of the football school. The flags of the Netherlands and Senegal are printed on the shirt, plus the toucan of the Van der Valk hotel chain, the academy’s lender. What started as offering a little help, as Ben van der Valk’s philanthropy, accommodation in the hotel and shirts, according to the hotel chain’s son Michael van der Valk, is now a fairly serious form of sponsorship with substantial amounts. The Van der Valks, owner of the football school, love the game and want to offer African talents a stage.
Outside the wall in Mbour, under a tree, a man addresses Fall. He has watched the match and wants the attacker to play football at his club, which plays football at a higher level than the first team of the training. Across the street is a quote by Nelson Mandela on the wall: ‘The greatest victory in life is not to never fail, but to rise after the fall.’
After the mutual match, the football players walk to a house, their home, a kilometer away in the suburb of Mbour. Beautiful from the outside, with a somewhat untidy interior. The mattresses are almost attached to each other, just on the floor. Some are broken. Here the talents live with ambitions, here they eat, here they check their mobile phone, because it is everywhere. Here they also receive English lessons and other subjects, which help them when they make the crossing to Europe. And otherwise, if they don’t make a career in football, the learning material is useful in social life in Senegal.
The talents returned from vacation a little earlier this day to treat the Dutch visitors to a match, so that they can show themselves. They are of different ages, which makes a review difficult. Fall is good, as is centre-back Seiko Sagna, 18, who almost playfully dribbles in and crosses entire fields as if there were no opponents.
Well, director Seydou Touré of the academy is proud of his players. He looks for talent all over the country, which he invites for training. He is always in a good mood and is already looking forward to the visit to the Netherlands in early November, the date depends on when the visas are arranged. His greatest talents can show themselves in the shop window, during internships at the FC Twente / Heracles Academy. The only question is: when will they break through?
A few days before the competition, at the Jules Bocandé training complex outside the capital Dakar, intended for the intensive training of youth by the federation, Seydou nurtures the greatest talent of the training: Mamadou Gning, a shy smiling boy, thin and very fast. . Gning is only 15 years old, he already plays in the national team under 17 and sometimes even in the under 20s. Toure thinks he is potentially better than Sadio Mane, the absolute star player of the country who will play against the Orange on November 21 in Doha at the World Cup. Gning also comes on an internship in the Netherlands, with Fall and Sagna.
Recognized searcher for talent Patrick Busby, employed by FC Twente and advisor to the football school, points out a stumbling block for the opportunities of African talent. To protect the Dutch market, a salary limit has been set for players from outside the EU. For adult footballers that is at least one and a half times the average salary in the premier league, which is approximately 4.5 tons.
Ajax and PSV
For youth players it is about half. Busby points out the injustice in the rules: ‘Ajax and PSV in particular have boosted the average wage with their astronomical salaries. This means that actually only clubs like Ajax and PSV can attract such a player from outside the EU. In doing so, they widen the gap with the rest, which is deprived of the opportunity.’
Busby was closely involved in the collaboration between the Netherlands and Senegal, which originated at a tournament in Uitgeest about ten years ago, where a youth team from Senegal took part. Busby, a long-time scout, regularly travels to the country in West Africa to help with the selection process, to see the boys, to speak to them. There is talent everywhere, as can be seen from the competitions that de Volkskrant visits. The former on-field chaos in African football is long gone. The boys play with discipline, without denying their heritage with technique, physical strength and perseverance.
The talents want nothing more than to go for their chance in Europe. They will have the opportunity in early November.