Champions League ambitions loom large for Iliman Ndiaye

An interview with Iliman Ndiaye has given substance to the perception that he is looking well beyond the basic terms of the new Everton contract he has been offered as he sees his future encompassing a lot more than the limited confines of Hill Dickinson Stadium.

 "Everyone's going to be watching the World Cup," he tells SPORTbible. "It's definitely a big opportunity for me."

“You don't know where football will take you next. As I've always said, I want to be the best player and to do that, you have to play at the top. I want to be playing at the top level. I want to be playing Champions League football."

Talking about his chequered history after he failed to make the grade at Southampton, Tottenham, Chelsea and Crystal Palace, it was a scout from Sheffield United who spotted him playing non-league.

“Did I ever feel like quitting back then? It never crossed my mind," says Ndiaye without hesitation. “Since a young age, I've had so much confidence and belief in my own ability. I've always had these dreams and I always knew that I'd make it to this stage."

“In my opinion, we are going to win the World Cup. If I didn’t think that, then what's the point of going? What's the point of packing your suitcase? I don't want to be a tourist. I’m going there to win it. If I thought differently, then I’d give my place in the team to someone else."

Ndiaye didn't come to England until he was 14.

"France is a big part of my life. I was born there. My family live there. My friends live there. My mum is French, too, so as much as I'm playing for Senegal and I love Senegal, I'm also French.

"A lot of us (the squad) were born in France. We are mostly a squad of French heritage, so it's going to mean everything. We have a strong team. I hope they'll come up against us and be scared."

“As soon as I landed in England, my dad picked me up and said, ‘You're going to a football camp at Manchester United.’ I was only 14 at the time,” he remembers. “My dad has always gone above and beyond for me.

“It wasn't easy. When I first arrived, I only knew one word and it was 'rainbow'. I learned it back in France a long time ago and that's what stuck in my mind.

"My dad knew that I loved football, so as soon as I arrived in England, he made sure I was given opportunities, like the Manchester United football camp. He also filmed all my matches when I was young and posted them on YouTube. I am in this position today because of him.

"I remember my first day at school. I had a PE lesson and we played football. After the session ended, everyone came up to me and started saying, ‘Oh wow, you're good.’ That made it easier to settle."

“I used to train with Reading after school. If you're good, they'll send you to the academy for a six-week trial,"

“A coach who was part of the academy would come to watch us train at times. I remember the first couple of training sessions went well but one day, he came over and gave me some in-game instructions, which included dribbling past my man.

"I thought the training session went well and my dad went over to speak to him. At first, the coach ignored him, so he kept calling over, saying, ‘Let me speak to you, brother.’

"He asked about a trial at Reading and the coach replied, ‘Your son is never going to be a professional footballer. He’s too small.' My dad went crazy. He started telling him, ‘You're talking nonsense. You're going to see him become one of the best in the world.’ We left and never came back.”

Ndiaye signed a first-team contract at Boreham Wood in his second year with the academy. He would go on to make two unused substitute appearances for their first-team before a 6-week trial at Sheffield United in February 2019 changed everything.

“They told me to leave Boreham Wood at that point, so I was always on the lookout for places to play football. I was obsessed. Every day I was playing football. If a team needed a player, I was there."

"It was on camera as well, so in the back of your head, if you do something, it's going to be on YouTube and everyone's going to see it. It also helped me keep fit for when I joined Sheffield United. It was an amazing time."

And talking about last season with Everton, where he is one of the club's most valuable players, he seemed notably less than enthusiastic: “It has gone okay. Personally, I think I could have been better. The start of the season was very good but the second part, not so much.

“I don't think it's fatigue. For me, the team has not been at its best. You can speak individually, but when the whole team is not working, you can't really say this player is fatigued or not doing well."

“At the same time, I don't think I've played enough games. I went to Afcon but actually, I don't think that's enough. I want to be playing in Europe, in the Champions League, I want to play in all of these games.”

“When I look back at everything I've done, everything I’ve been through, it is something to be proud of. But it doesn't stop here. You don't stop when you've made it. You want to go further and achieve things.

“Since I was young, I've always had the same dream... to be the best player in the world. I also want to win trophies for my club and country. That's what I play football for. You want to win trophies and make people proud, your family proud, your country proud.

"I don’t want to have any regrets."

Iliman Ndiaye faces France tonight in Senegal's first game of the 2026 World Cup and we will have the Live Forum up and running for the occasion. 

Quotes sourced from Sport Bible

• Live Forum

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