Niamey isn’t one of West Africa’s fancier cities. It is by no means a city anyone wants to visit. No one sits and dreams of going to Niamey and if you run a poll on this continent to ask how many people know where Niamey is, you probably may not get many right answers. For Ibrahim Sadiq though, it was a turning point. A point where he realized fully that he had grown and his football had well and truly been set on a path to big things. It is where he really came into his own as a footballer. A city where many things changed for him.
2019 was that year and although Ghana could not get past the group stages, it introduced a new crop of young Ghanaian stars to the world. Sadiq was one of them. One of the eleven foreign players in that Black Satellites team. He had just gotten his chance with the Norsjaelland team after graduating from the Right to Dream academy and was buzzing. It was him and Ghana’s new sensation, Mohammed Kudus.
Before this opportunity at the U-20 level, he had already featured for Ghana at the U-17 World Cup in India in 2017. He scored in Ghana’s first game against Colombia – a game Ghana won 1-0. The Starlets were however dumped out in the knockout stage after a 2-1 loss to Mali. Sadiq was the main man in those youth teams. He was quick, composed and had a heart of a lion. That crop of young players was incredibly star-studded. There was him, Emmanuel Toku, Eric Ayiah, Mohammed Aminu, Mohammed Kudus, Gabriel Level, Ibrahim Sulley and Richard Danso, who lit up the stage with his electric runs and fiery shots at the goalkeepers.
In all of these exploits, Sadiq was with Kudus. Kudus was the quieter of the two. He was not one of the guys in the team many cared about then. A few years later, Kudus Mohammed orchestrated one of Ghana’s best games at the World Cup yet where he scored a brace to become the first Ghanaian to do it at the tournament.
“They being there was like dream. I have been having chats with him and Kamal. I told them how proud I was of them and happy that we all started from nothing and look where they are now. Of course, they are opening chances for us. It makes me tell myself that I shouldn’t relax. I could also be there but they have to do it to open chances. Them going there tells me that I could do more and get my chance then I take it” Sadiq said with a smile on his face. A smile he later told me alluded to some of the memories he had just had of Kudus and Kamaldeen Sulemana during their time at the Right To Dream Academy.
Football is sometimes so strange. How do two people begin their careers with the same equipment, under the same conditions yet, one person becomes incredibly “bigger” than the other?
Kudus and Sadiq both grew up in Nima. Nima is a metaphor. A stereotype. A place that usually connotes negativity in the minds of many Ghanaians but the younger generation is on a mission to changing that untrue narrative and institute what community really stands for. Nima has produced one too many footballers – a ton of them have contributed to the country’s incredibly great football story and it cannot be shunned or degenerated upon as much as people do. “Nima means a lot to me. That is where I was born and where everything started” Sadiq said while looking on as his mates played ball at the Right To Dream homecoming meet… “It is my home and a place I have big respect for. It is where my belief, interest and everything is. It means so much.”
Sadiq lived in Nima and played football there for the most part until he was scouted by Tom Vernon. Yes – the Tom Vernon. Vernon started the Right to Dream Academy years ago and is still very actively in charge of the running of the place. “Anytime I say this, no one believes it but Tom scouted me. I went through the selection process 4 times before he decided to pick me. I am so grateful to him” Sadiq recalled as he watched some of his former mates at the academy take on the younger crop there now. He stayed at the Academy from 2010 to 2018 until he moved to Norsjaelland in Denmark.
The Right to Dream Academy has built its pedigree over the years. It has assumed some kind of a messianic status – but for them, many of the players who have had opportunities to play the game may otherwise not have had them. A place that nurtures many talents of either gender and makes them into big stars. The list of players to have played there is long enough to fill a Christmas shopping receipt from Shoprite. “In my time there, I went through a lot of ups and downs but it made me stronger. They gave me everything and I learnt to trust myself. I believed that I could always do it and show to the world what I had learnt there.”
After Sadiq left the Academy, he moved to FC Norsjaelland in Denmark. “That was a hard time,” he tells me as he swings sideways like pendulum. His career there was footnote worthy. Not much to record in the top drawers. Not many high points. Just a ton of niggling injuries.
A time he told me was a tough one. “…but I am tough guy” he shrugged as he said with a fit of assured confidence. Sadiq admits that psychologically it was hard to navigate. There wasn’t a way back for him every time he went under the knife to treat one injury after the other. He wanted it all to end.
He wanted to be back doing what he loves most and that was to play football. There was a bit of pathos about his time there that he doesn’t quite want to remember. Many players go through a patch like this in their careers where nothing seems to be going well. The onus then lies on the player to kick on or move away to find a place that suits him best. Sadiq chose the latter.
In February 2022, he packed his bags and moved to Gothenburg and to a club called BK Hacken. Hacken became a home for the young man who is still learning the ropes in the ever-challenging maze of professional football.
“I have learnt about my body. I am doing the right things now and I think I have found myself again” Sadiq said. Sweden has become the man’s home. He is having a good time out there. It has been under a year since he docked there and has already won the Swedish league.
“It makes me happy because not every player at my age who has made the move from how low I was to the “top” – to take something from Europe. It is not the end though, there is more chances to go to other places and do more. It is a big thing for me and my club and anyone who has helped me to achieve that goal. It is my first time winning a trophy for a team that I have played for.” He said.
In the very short time, his statistics read 19 starts, 7 goals and 4 assists which is an impressive return for a man who can play across the front line. Every player’s dream is to win a trophy – however small it may be. As a league winner in Sweden, Sadiq is not backing down on what he really wants as a footballer.
“There is more to learn. I am not yet done. There are many guys out there who want what I have gotten so I am not here to relax. There is a lot more to improve on.” He intimated with the insatiable desire of a man with bags of faith who has bought lottery tickets for months but has never won.
Ibrahim Sadiq wants to return to national team football. Having played at the youth levels, he feels this is the time to make the step up into the Black Stars but, it will not be easy. This feels like moment in the sun for Ghana football. So many talents, a lot of competition in many places on the pitch and just a sense of good cheer about this team. Sadiq knows and is ready to work harder than ever to get in.
Ibrahim Sadiq. The young boy from Nima who moved from an Academy to a neophyte in the fast-paced system of professional football to a league winner, it can only be up from here and the man is up for it.
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