Iliman Ndiaye’s staggering rise from £100 a week, living in digs and training in pitch black to £65m Man City star

ILIMAN NDIAYE has returned to Manchester six years after a gritty loan spell that epitomises his incredible journey. On deadline day, the 26-year-old was snapped up by Manchester City for £65million. Iliman Ndiaye was a £65m signing for Man City on deadline day Credit: Manchester City FC Ndiaye with his dad while signing for Sheffield United in 2019 Credit: Instagram @ilimanndiaye10 In 2020, he dropped into the seventh tier for £100 a week. That is not a typo. There are no missing zeroes on that figure. A young Ndiaye, who was learning his trade in Sheffield United‘s academy at the time, was desperate for a taste of senior football. Sign up for the Football newsletter Thank you! And so he headed on a half-season loan to Greater Manchester side Hyde United in the Northern Premier League. Ndiaye was still only 19, but some Prem stars are already established at that age. Look at his new City team-mate Phil Foden, who made his senior debut at 17, or Gianluigi Donnarumma, who was playing in goal for AC Milan at 16. Ndiaye was still a rough diamond but Hyde’s manager at the time, David McGurk, saw the potential in him straight away. Former Everton trickster Ndiaye would travel from his Blades digs, rely on lifts to the train station from team-mates, and train until he was forced to stop during the cold northern winter months. McGurk, who runs the Tactx social media account, wrote on X: “He didn’t drive, and he had digs in Sheffield, so he got the train over to us for training on Tuesday and Thursday nights at 7pm. Most read in Sport BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK “In winter, that meant arriving at the station in the pitch dark. “When I told him what time to be there, he said no problem, and on the first day he was sat at the ground gone past six o’clock, ready well before anyone else. “He was first at every training session. More than once I had to take him off the pitch because we needed to turn the floodlights out, and that was after he’d already trained at Sheffield United earlier the same day. “We even offered Sheffield United the option for him to train with us only once a week to manage his load. He didn’t want it. He wanted to be part of the group. He just wanted to play football.” Ndiaye was always comfortable mixing it in football’s lower rungs. After leaving Marseille as a kid, he moved to Senegal to play for a club in Dakar. After two years there, he united with his dad in England and joined Boreham Wood’s youth side, as well as Sunday League team Rising Ballers to stay sharp. So it is no surprise that he threw himself into life at Hyde, where he scored once in nine appearances. Ndiaye played for Sunday League side Rising Ballers as a teenager Credit: http://www.youtube.com/@RisingBallers Ndiaye became a fan favourite at Bramall Lane Credit: Getty Everton fans loved him just as much Credit: Getty Ndiaye has signed a five-year contract at the Etihad Credit: Manchester City FC Those numbers hardly jump off the page, but Ndiaye worked hard to improve his output which, when coupled with the more skilful parts of his game, would eventually make him one of the Premier League’s most eye-catching players. McGurk wrote: “Watching him week to week that season is probably the only time in my career as a manager I’ve stood on the touchline and just enjoyed watching football, rather than managing it. “You knew that if he had the ball, he was going to hurt whoever we were playing, and there wasn’t much they could do about it. “It was a level above what we were used to. “He’d go past defenders like they weren’t there and put himself through on the goalkeeper, but the end product hadn’t caught up with everything else. “His scanning and supporting movement were at a level completely different to anything else we saw in non-league football, and his securing skills, in both open and closed-body situations, are the best I’ve ever seen from a player. “Once he put it all together, it’s not hard to see how he’s become a £65million player.” Now, it is over to Ndiaye to bring that full package to a side like City, where starring roles are up for grabs in a new era under Enzo Maresca. Comment now