No one really wanted him! Now this dribbler is stealing the show

No one really wanted him! Now this dribbler is stealing the show When Iliman Ndiaye has the ball at his feet, the hearts of the many street footballers on this planet soar. Manchester City’s new signing brings a kind of elegance to the Sky Blues that simply can’t be drawn up on a tactics board. The Senegal international is a free spirit who has mastered the long, rocky road from the cages of London to the very highest stage of European football. Under Pep Guardiola, a player type like Iliman Ndiaye would probably have had a tough time. Guardiola’s famous possession football thrives on perfect spacing, precise passing, and strict discipline. Pep loved control over the game. Unpredictable dribbles that can also end in losing the ball rarely fit into his tightly choreographed system. An instinctive footballer who improvises and breaks out of fixed zones would have run the risk under Guardiola of losing his greatest strength in a tactical straitjacket. That was seen, for example, with Savinho, who now plays for Tottenham. But under new City coach Enzo Maresca, a different wind is blowing. The Italian also values structured possession, but in the past he has often deliberately looked for players with “isolation qualities” for his attack. Players who can blow apart opposition lines on their own in one-on-one situations, whether out wide or through the middle. Against deep-lying defences, Maresca needs exactly that touch of unpredictability. For him, Ndiaye is not a security risk, but the key to unlocking shut-down spaces. Dancing helps with dribbling According to Ndiaye himself, he owes how difficult he is to pin down one-on-one partly to his father. A trained dancer and choreographer, he was his most influential teacher. He taught his son how to transfer the smooth movements of dance onto the pitch. As Ndiaye revealed in an interview with 'Sky Sports', he owes practically his entire footballing foundation to him: “He taught me everything I know. With his background in dance and choreography, he integrated that into the way I play — for example with stepovers. He always told me: when you do a stepover, your body can still move this way or that way.” From that, the all-rounder developed those inimitable feints and body swerves that regularly leave defenders grasping at thin air. Speaking to 'BBC Newsbeat', the attacker defined his idea of street football quite pragmatically as pure effectiveness with style. For him, it doesn’t have to be a spectacular rainbow flick, as he made clear: “The way you dribble past three or four players in the Premier League — to me, those are real skills.” 📸 Clive Brunskill - 2026 Getty Images But as light-footed as his dribbling looks today, the road to get there was just as tough. Ndiaye belongs to that rare category of professionals who were not welcomed into England’s classic academy system with a red carpet. At trial sessions with clubs like Chelsea, Tottenham, Southampton, Reading, and Crystal Palace, he was met with one rejection after another. The reason? He was simply considered too small and too slight. In an interview with his previous club Everton, he recalled the demoralising words of the scouts: “I was very small and they said they already had similar players. People even said directly to my father’s face that I would never become a professional footballer.” In moments like those, it was above all his family that kept him on course. Growing up in a house with seven sisters and one brother, Iliman learned early on how to stand his ground. “Don’t focus on the rejection, eventually your luck will come through,” was the key advice he later passed on to other young talents in an interview with the 'BBC'. Instead of honing his game at luxury academies, Ndiaye worked on his skills on uneven pitches in Dakar, Senegal, and in the metal cages of London. When he found himself without a club for a time, he stayed fit with the well-known YouTube team Rising Ballers. From Rising Ballers to the pros “The things I did there, I didn’t do at other clubs. It helped me stay fit and enjoy football more, especially when you don’t have a club,” Ndiaye explained to 'BBC Newsbeat'. Via London fifth-tier side Boreham Wood, he eventually fought his way to an opportunity with Sheffield United at the age of 19. That is where his breakthrough came: after an outstanding 2022/23 Championship season, his path took him via Marseille and Everton before finally landing at Manchester City. For many young players without an academy background, Ndiaye is now the ultimate role model. That Ndiaye can do more than just produce moments of magic — that he can also deliver cold, hard end product — was shown on Boxing Day 2024, when he scored against his future club at the Etihad Stadium with a spectacular first-time strike in an Everton shirt. Pure show is far from enough for him: “I don’t just try to dribble, I try to get goals and assists,” he also stressed to 'BBC Newsbeat'. Now with 44 caps for Senegal, a third-place finish at AFCON 2024, the revoked 2026 Africa Cup triumph, and appearances at two World Cups, the versatile attacker is opening the next chapter at Man City. He summed up his motivation confidently at his Manchester City unveiling: “My heart was set on joining City. I want to get the fans out of their seats and help win games.” Today’s derby against Manchester United feels almost made for exactly that kind of star turn. This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.