Moving from one continent to another is always difficult. Doing so as an 18-year-old footballer, going from West Africa to Germany in the middle of the ongoing footballing season in order to join Bayern Munich, makes the transition many, many degrees harder.
But that is the challenge Bara Sapoko Ndiaye accepted when he agreed to join Bayern on a six month loan deal, which is why he will need support. Ndiaye’s inability to play for any of Bayern’s youth teams due to EU regulations naturally limit his
chances to play, as does the injury he is currently recovering from, but gathering game time is not the point of this loan. Bayern’s board member for sport, Max Eberl, and head coach, Vincent Kompany, explain what the plan is for the young Senegalese footballer.
@iMiaSanMia captured Kompany’s words on Ndiaye.
“Max can say more about how the transfer went. He’s a player from our Red&Gold academy. He has pace as a midfielder, he’s a young talent – he’s ineligible for our second team at the moment. But he can have a 4-5 month adaptation period with the first team. From what I’ve seen in training, he’s shown that he’s one of the talents we currently have in our youth,” said Kompany.
Eberl had this to say about the youngster, also captured by @iMiaSanMia.
“He’s not really a new signing. He’s from the Gambinos Academy, we have several players there. He’s just turned 18, meaning this was the first opportunity to bring him to Europe. He has never even played league football and needs to adapt to European football here. We’ve loaned him for six months, then we’ll see what the best next step for him is in the summer. This is not a real transfer but a progression from the Gambinos Academy we have in Africa,” Eberl noted.
At the end of the day, it is about making an extended impression during training with the Bayern first team and seeing where that will lead his career past the summer.
However, as Bayern look to challenge on as many fronts as possible, perhaps Kompany will be forced to rotate and Ndiaye will end up getting some game time after all.
