Abdallah Sima

Sebastian Kandilarov

Sometimes life writes a story that even Hollywood screenwriters would not make up. The main character in the story I am gonna talk about is young Senegal football striker Abdallah Diop Sima. Sima started playing football in the streets of Dakar, which is usual for footballers born in poorer countries. In Senegal scouts of a French football club, Evian FC noticed him and offered Sima to train in their youth academy center. Although Evian FC was playing the fifth French football league for Sima it was a big step forward even though he did not sign a contract with the club. But he still moved to the best football region in the world and got good conditions to train. In 2020 he set up a goal himself - to sign up a professional contract with a club. And he did. In February he signed up for FC Táborsko from the Czech third football league. As he said he had never heard about the Czech republic until that offer but he fulfilled his goal. At this time he was still just 18 years old.

I bet you'd guess it would take years to get from the third league to the first league club leader. Sima did it in five months. SK Slavia Prague bought him as a player with potential after he was scoring goal after goal in Táborsko. As a new young player, Slavia put Sima to the B-team to let him collect some experiences meanwhile. But in stories of unusual people can't lack a pinch of luck. Sima was showing his great football skills in Slavia B, but this is still just a third league club. Sima needed to show himself in the first team, but there were tough competitors. And now it's time for coincidence. In the winter some members of the Slavia Prague team were infected by covid including some players and the main manager had to fill up the player list for the Champions League with players from the B-team squad. One of the players that were called up to the champions league match was Abdallah Sima. In his debut for Slavia Prague, he played the whole match against Hapoel Beer Sheva, and in addition, he scored a goal. At 19 he played a great match and the manager kept him in the A-team for the rest of the season. During the season Sima became one of the most important players of Slavia Prague, in his 31 performances he got 15 goals and 3 assists.

And it's definitely not the end of this incredible story. The Transfer window is opening this year in June and Sima will probably leave Slavia and join some world-class club! There are speculations Slavia has received offers for Sima from top Premier League clubs. We don't know where we will see Sima in the next season but I hope he will continue playing in the form he was playing this season.