World Cup 2018: Alfred N’Diaye vowed he’d play for Senegal in the finals after seeing them beat France when he was 12.. now 16 years later his dream is coming true against Poland
Paris-born powerhouse hopes the Africans can match their sensational 2002 run to the quarter-finals
ALFRED N’DIAYE’S first World Cup memory is watching Senegal beat champions France on TV as a 12-year-old.
That day he vowed he too would represent his country on football’s grandest stage.
Senegal’s Class of 2002, complete with El Hadji Diouf and Co, reached the quarter-finals in the country’s only World Cup campaign before this summer.
N’Diaye, the Paris-born powerhouse, was looking on, open-mouthed, badly wanting a piece of the action.
And today he will achieve his aim when he lines up to face Poland.
The midfielder said: “I was very proud because we beat France and they were world champions, so it was a very good feeling.
“When I saw it I said, at one time in my life, I want to be at a World Cup with the Senegal national team.
"Finally the dream has come true.
“When we qualified this time, the feeling was unbelievable.
“We didn’t go to the World Cup for many years and in Africa football is very important.
“In Africa we have a lot of pressure. We always have good players, Senegal, but we didn’t win anything.
“We got to the quarter-finals of a World Cup but we didn’t win.
“The people want to win and go to the World Cup, so they put us under big pressure.
“Now we are like kings on the streets back there! They say ‘We are proud of you’, ‘thank you, thank you, thank you’, ‘it’s fantastic for our country’.”
If Senegal’s players are treated like kings just for qualifying, they will be considered gods if they can better the 2002 team’s efforts.
And N’Diaye will become even more in demand, having spent the last two seasons in England on loan from Villarreal.
First he went to Hull, where he was relegated from the Premier League, before winning promotion back to the top flight with Wolves last season.
The 28-year-old would like to join Nuno Espirito Santo’s side permanently when he returns from Russia but the likelihood is they will pass up the chance.
But for now his focus is on the World Cup and following the demands of Senegal’s boss, the former Portsmouth midfielder Aliou Cisse, who has a reputation for being a disciplinarian.
N’Diaye added: “The manager is tough. He likes work, discipline.
"When he played, he was like this. He was a hard player.
“For him it’s very important to have a strong team, to be strong in defence, and with our quality we can go quickly on counter- attack because we have quick and technical players up front.”
One of those is Sadio Mane, who has just scored in a Champions League final — not that it has made him a big-time Charlie.
N’Diaye added: “Sadio’s a very good guy, a quiet guy. Now he’s a very important player for Liverpool. He’s a star.
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“But when he comes with us he’s normal, he doesn’t change and stays the Sadio like five years ago.
“Mane and Salah did a fantastic job in Liverpool together and it’s good for African football. It shows we have good players in Africa.
“This year we have a very good team. We have class players like Mane and others like Keita Balde at Monaco who is very good too.
“In every position we have strong players. We have Gueye at Everton, Cheikhou Kouyate at West Ham, many players. We can do good things at the World Cup.”