Iliman Ndiaye’s most spellbinding moment – and there are many – came at a kick-about with zero fans… but don’t worry, there is footage.
It is somewhat grainy, but it offers a glimpse into why one former manager compares his dribbling ability to Diego Maradona.
For Everton fans, there are plenty of reasons to get excited over the Senegal star, which we will come on to, but don’t get too carried away with the nod to the great Maradona… or the fact the video is captioned ‘best player in the world’.
Saying that, this is a stellar signing.
After pouring through hours of clips, recalling watching him live and talking to those who know him best – from the man who first discovered him to Paul Heckingbottom, the Sheffield United manager who unlocked his true potential at the big level – it is clear to see why.
For Everton fans, there are plenty of reasons to get excited over Senegal star Iliman Ndiaye
![The Marseille star sealed his £15.6million move to Everton this week, signing a five-year deal](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/04/13/86920429-13600483-image-a-56_1720094557512.jpg)
The Marseille star sealed his £15.6million move to Everton this week, signing a five-year deal
The aforementioned wondergoal came at a bizarre event put on by the PGMOL at St George’s Park in 2018, where Ndiaye and his Boreham Wood academy team-mates took on Dover Athletic in a tournament designed to test video assistant referee technology.
‘It sounds so bad because there’s only one Diego Maradona,’ his former manager at Boreham Wood, Luke Garrard, tells Mail Sport. ‘But he runs through just like him! He sits four or five players down, turns them inside out… It’s an unbelievable goal.’
The biggest surprise in the video is the lack of surprise. After tap-dancing through a whole team and weaving in and out of defenders much bigger than him, none of Ndiaye’s team-mates were shocked. This is what the kid is about, a street footballer who has made it on the big stage.
Everton believe they have got one of the transfers of the summer window with his signing from Marseille, which was confirmed on Wednesday. The versatile attacker has joined on a five-year deal for a fee of around £15.6million plus add-ons.
His route to Goodison Park has been arduous but follows a theme of getting over setbacks, wowing coaches and taking calculated gambles. After being born in Rouen, a town north-west of Paris, to a Senegalese father and a French mother, he left for London aged 14.
Ndiaye barely spoke a word of English but his football did the talking. Hertfordshire club Boreham Wood stumbled upon him by chance, when manager Garrard and academy boss Cameron Mawer were given the opportunity to take a look at him.
The now-National League South side, who made the FA Cup fifth round and played Everton in 2022, do not have an official academy and offer education to their young players as well as football coaching. Their goal is to give every budding footballer a Plan B.
![Ndiaye's ex-manager at Boreham Wood, Luke Garrard (above), says the star drew comparisons to Diego Maradona during his slaloming solo wondergoal at St George’s Park back in 2018](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/04/13/86920467-13600483-image-a-57_1720094635341.jpg)
Ndiaye’s ex-manager at Boreham Wood, Luke Garrard (above), says the star drew comparisons to Diego Maradona during his slaloming solo wondergoal at St George’s Park back in 2018
![Everton believe they have got one of the transfers of the summer window by luring Ndiaye](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/04/13/86920427-13600483-image-a-55_1720094537067.jpg)
Everton believe they have got one of the transfers of the summer window by luring Ndiaye
![Argentina hero Maradona is widely regarded as one of the best players ever to grace the game](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/04/13/86920647-13600483-image-a-58_1720094809159.jpg)
Argentina hero Maradona is widely regarded as one of the best players ever to grace the game
When asked for his Plan B, Ndiaye would always give a baffled look and say, ‘No, I am going to be a footballer’. Mawer tells Mail Sport the story: ‘We got a call from another programme asking to take these boys as they had run out of spaces.
‘So I drove up in a minibus and took about 15 lads over here. Two boys stayed… one of them was Iliman. One session in, everybody was like, ‘You need to look at this boy’. He had something special about him. And he was lovely.
‘We’d have an Under 18 game in the evening and, in the day, someone would come over to me and say, ‘Mate, Iliman is out on the astro’. He’d be out there training to his maximum, I had to drag him off and say, ‘We’ve got a game tonight, Ili’.
‘As soon as I got back to my office, he’d sneak back out there… He is a likeable rogue! Many technical players don’t work out, but Iliman was the hardest grafter. We’d have the bottom group training, he’d be out there with them – most boys would say, ‘I’m not training with them’.’
Manager Garrard, who this year left Boreham Wood, adds: ‘I believe in a fine line of confidence and arrogance and he trod between the two. He conducted himself superbly, the way in which he played. He’s very quiet, he came off the streets of Paris to a foreign country.
‘He was finding his feet when I first met him but he was willing to learn and hungry. He was going to achieve his dreams and it did not matter who was in the way. About a week in, I involved him in a first-team session. He didn’t care. He went and took it off the bigger lads.
‘He’s got the mentality to get over setbacks, 100 per cent, this is a kid who came over here to forge a career – that speaks volumes. He is driven and hungry. I don’t see him standing still. In his head he will want to progress again at Everton.’
After trials at Southampton and Chelsea, Ndiaye moved to Sheffield United, via a brief stint on loan at seventh tier Hyde United. His manager at the Manchester club, David McGurk, tells Mail Sport: ‘He’s not a big lad but has a big personality on the pitch and a lot about him.
![The 24-year-old struggled at Marseille last season, scoring just three goals in 30 appearances](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/04/13/86920725-13600483-image-a-59_1720094935928.jpg)
The 24-year-old struggled at Marseille last season, scoring just three goals in 30 appearances
![Senegal team-mate Idrissa Gana Gueye (right) was influential in persuading him to join Everton](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/04/13/86920811-13600483-image-a-61_1720095195327.jpg)
Senegal team-mate Idrissa Gana Gueye (right) was influential in persuading him to join Everton
‘He still doesn’t look as tough as he actually is – really hard to knock off the ball, shields it well, presses hard, tackles. He is slighter than most players but you wouldn’t have guessed it because he has an athletic physicality. He was quicker, sharper and stronger than everyone.
‘He’s not someone who wants to be the centre of attention. He will give lads stick and take a bit himself, he can handle himself in the dressing room – his English is very good. He gains respect on and off the pitch. I thought he was the best I’d ever played with or coached.’
South Yorkshire was where he truly started to understand his sky-high potential. This reporter was at his full debut for Sheffield United and, in truth, knew little about him before the game. He scored twice in a 6-2 win over Peterborough that day and the rest, as they say, is history.
‘Singing I I Iliman Ndiaye,’ the Blades fans would sing. They absolutely adored him. As a player who idolised Ronaldinho growing up, this raw talent had the lot – fancy tricks but also clever, unselfish passes, an ego but balanced out by a work ethic.
‘When I came in at Sheffield United, there was no sort of pathway for him – ‘can we find him a club and move him on?’ – but after a couple of weeks working with him, I was clear in my mind, he was going nowhere, no way,’ then-Blades boss Paul Heckingbottom tells Mail Sport.
‘He’s a raw talent as you’ll see in YouTube videos… there’s a lot of people who can do that with the ball, but they can’t be a professional footballer. His work ethic is first class. In a short space of time it was just improvement, improvement, improvement.
‘He’s a quiet man. He shows off on the pitch, will do a dance in front of the fans, but away from it he wants to be left alone and train hard. I see him as a No 9. One of Iliman’s biggest attributes is his agility, his work-rate, his passion in the running. Dychey will love him.
![Sean Dyche will be looking to build on Everton's 15th place finish in the league last campaign](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/04/13/86920773-13600483-image-a-60_1720095025269.jpg)
Sean Dyche will be looking to build on Everton’s 15th place finish in the league last campaign
![The former Sheffield United star is most effective in the middle, rather than operating out wide](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/04/13/86873121-13600483-The_former_Sheffield_United_star_was_a_fan_favourite_among_the_B-a-63_1720095533390.jpg)
The former Sheffield United star is most effective in the middle, rather than operating out wide
‘Everton fans will love him. They will soon see how hard he works, how well he wants to do. At Marseille, they played him wide – but he needs to be in the middle and show his qualities. Operating in tight spaces, under pressure, he’s better than everybody else.’
After Ndiaye left Bramall Lane last summer, Hal Stewart of the Sheff Utd Way YouTube channel told Mail Sport: ‘His exit changes everything, he is the best player I’ve ever seen at the club in my entire life.’
Senegal team-mate and new Everton colleague Idrissa Gana Gueye was influential in persuading Ndiaye to join the Goodison Park club, as was director of football and boss Sean Dyche – perhaps finalising the deal from Glastonbury.
As far as references go, Ndiaye’s are glowing to say the least. If Dyche can rediscover his best level after a sub-par year out of position in France, the Toffees could have pulled off one of the best pound-for-pound signings of the summer.