It appears that Tottenham Hotspur had the chance to avoid being knocked out of the EFL Cup by Sheffield United’s Iliman Ndiaye a number of years ago.
That’s because the player, who spoke to So Foot in France about his career, actually had a trial with Spurs, which didn’t come to anything.
The 23-year-old, who has 14 goals and nine assists to his name in 47 games this season, was the one who scored the winning goal in the 1-0 win over Tottenham in the competition’s fifth round back in early March.
It was something of a revenge game for him, as he talked to the French magazine about all his early struggles when he first arrived to England and took part in a number of trials.
He said: “At the start, it was really difficult. I joined my dad who was in London, at Manor Park, not far from West Ham, for work. The first week, I did a seven day trial with Manchester United, but nothing happened for me afterwards. After that, I did numerous tests, trials that didn’t lead to much: Reading, Chelsea, Tottenham, Southampton.
That’s how he then ended up at Boreham Wood, not overly far from Tottenham, where he eventually started to play and caught the eye with his performances.
That’s why Sheffield United picked up on him, and the rest is history, with him now one of the better players in the squad and one expected to potentially move to the Premier League in the near future.
And he could have been Tottenham’s.
