In winter, there are actions that save. Rúben Amorim can attest to this. This can be for example: launching a pressing launched at the right tempo on a lousy back pass in the 86e when you are trailing by a small goal during a Mancunian derby, perform a subtle tilt of the pelvis while the offending defender comes back like a nag, obtain a saving penalty and therefore avoid your coach a third defeat in a row for his fifth league outing. Or, in the same match, catching Ederson with a sombrero before finishing calmly in the empty goal. It's December 15, and at around 7:30 p.m., Amad Diallo has just really refreshed the atmosphere at the Etihad Stadium.
Saving his coach's loaves, the Ivorian winger has made it his specialty in recent weeks. A few weeks later, United are well on their way to experiencing a fifth consecutive disappointment, what's more with their other hereditary enemy, Liverpool? It's him again who comes out of the woods. United are mistreated at home by the red lantern? Hat-trick in the money time. Enough to establish yourself as the top scorer and one of the rare satisfactions this season within “the worst team in Manchester United history” – said Amorim himself. And incidentally, to justify the 40 potatoes (including 15 bonuses) placed in the winter of 2021 on an 18-year-old kid who billed just 40 minutes of play in Serie A.
Recruited by Boca at twelve years old
An early transfer which is not, however, a first for the attacker, who left his country at the age of 12 in 2014 to join Italy. Accompanied by a certain Hamed Junior Traoré, two years his senior and today a providential triggerman on the side of the AJA on loan from Bournemouth, direction Barco and its 2665 souls, in the depths of Emilia-Romagna. As a setting, a church, a few houses and a Football stadium on the edge of fields, vineyards and woods. A postcard setting, but above all it looks like the start of an adventure for the two little Ivorians. “They arrived at the beginning of October, with not much other than what they had on their backs. We gave them good shoes, warm clothes, we dressed them in club equipment”remembers Enzo Guerri, the president of the Boca Barco club.
They are quickly joined by two other hopefuls from Ivory Coast, brought to the area by a certain Fabrizio Gilioli, a Labrador breeder by profession, who presents himself as a “family friend”. Privileged intermediary of the Leader Football Academy of Abidjan, known for having sent Éric Bailly to Espanyol Barcelona in 2013, it is he who organizes the sector, uses his contacts on site to bring the children to his campaign.
Giving him the ball was like putting it in the bank: you knew you wouldn't lose it.
The father of Cris Gilioli, a hundred matches in Serie B and today coach of the U18s at Sassuolo, had a hollow nose. Shortly after the arrival of Amad and Hamed Junior, Guerri observed “scouts from the biggest teams in Italy line up to come see them play”. “Giving him the ball was like putting it in the bank: you knew you wouldn’t lose it”image Wars. “Amad went to do tests at Juventus. After 10 minutes of training, Juve called me back and told me that he had to come and play at their place. » The kid visits the facilities, poses alongside Paul Pogba, who already welcomes him… But in the end it's Atalanta who wins, and recruits as a bonus the one who presents herself as Amad's mother. “It’s a practice that is quite widespread among European clubs: beyond transferring the kid under 16, they offer a fictitious job to the parents. If the parent obtains a job legally within the club, the son who is still a minor has the right to be transferred there, explains Barthélémy Gaillard, co-author of the book Magic System: modern slavery of African footballers. There are lots of little cheats, adjustments like that that take place” Hamed Junior, less flashy with the ball, leaves for Empoli, accompanied by Muhamed Tehe Olawale, third of the four thieves who arrived in the fall of 2014.
Baby Elephant and Big Manitou
End of January 2021. Recruited at a high price by United, Amad is sent to cut his teeth a little further north, to Glasgow. His suitcases just set down, he sets off for his first in the Rangers jersey. The joy was short-lived: a few days later, the FIGC, the Italian Federation, fined him. 42,000 euros and guilt established by the authority in the falsification of his identity papers which had allowed him to reach Italy, still a minor. In a sleight of hand, Amad had become the brother of Hamed Junior Traoré, and the son of Hamed Mamadou Traoré, president and founder of the Leader Foot Académie where he kicked the ball from the age of 8 to 12 in Abidjan.
-The players knew everything, they led a normal life with their fake parents.
A way of dribbling Italian legislation, and allowing the president's wife to bring the two Abidjan hopefuls to Emilia-Romagna. The system is revealed by the sulphurous Sicilian agent Giovanni Damiano Drago, accustomed to the fact, he who had already brought a young person from the Leader Football Academy to Italy by changing his age and finding him a substitute father to allow him to join the ranks of Inter Milan. Accused of being the big man of trafficking in minor footballers between the Ivory Coast and Italy as part of the so-called “Bebé Éléphant” operation and convicted for this, Drago spills the beans to obtain a more punishable sentence. slight: Amad is nothing like Traoré's son, and Hamed is at best only the offspring of his cousin.
Traoré, the president of the Leader Foot Academy, no longer wants to hear about Italy. He doesn't pick up his phone if it's to talk about Amad. When The Athletic came to ring his doorbell to tell him about the prodigy, he claimed to have treated him “like his son”bringing him “the best conditions and all the support” necessary for its development. “It wasn’t exactly human trafficking”recognized an investigator at the microphone of the sports department of the New York Times. “The players knew everything, they led a normal life with their fake parents”far from any mistreatment. History that is now old, especially since Amad should no longer change continents or countries any time soon: Manchester has just locked down its new appointed savior until at least 2030. Enough to give him time to stall a few times. other sombreros in the Fergie Timeundoubtedly.
Rúben Amorim smashes the giant screen in the Manchester United dressing room
Comments from Enzo Guerri collected by BGC.
Contacted, Hamed Mamadou Traoré and Fabrizio Gilioli did not respond to our requests at the time of publication.
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