Abdoulaye Faye and his teammates put on their equipment in the locker room of the Diambars Institute, one of Senegal's biggest football academies.
They smile as they leave the locker room, quip at each other before taking an alley that leads to one of the six football pitches in this high-level training center.
First workshop this afternoon: abdominal exercises on the floor.
“They have to gain muscle because you have to be a real athlete to play football today,” explains Bruno Rohart, coach of the Diambars Institute's first team.
Abdoulaye Faye, a young central defender from the Diambars Institute dreams of playing in England.
© Elimane Ndao / France 24
Founded in 2003, in Saly, a hundred kilometers south of Dakar, the academy began to produce talents who shone in Europe around the 2010s. Its first headliner: Idrissa Gana Gueye.
The Senegalese midfielder passed by Lille, PSG and Everton in England paved the way for a long list of footballers trained by the center and who made the happiness of the championships of the Old Continent.
In the hall of the administrative building of the institute, the effigies of the former residents of Diambars are proudly hung on the walls – three of them are currently participating in the World Cup-2022 in Qatar with the national team.
In addition to Idrissa Gueye is Bamba Dieng, the young Olympique de Marseille striker, who scored Senegal's third goal against Qatar on the second day of the World Cup.
Saliou Ciss and Joseph Lopy complete the list of the four jewels of the academy, African champions with Senegal at the start of the year, to which are added the portraits of a dozen other footballers who have made the happiness of the 'National team.
"We train to sell"
This afternoon, the Diambars first team who play in the Senegalese Ligue 1 are trying out tactical set-ups for the next league game.
Abdoulaye, left central defender, comfortable with the ball, takes care of his controls and his passes.
At 18, he is one of the nuggets of the academy.
That day, a recruiter from Manchester City, the giant of English football, was present in the stands along with the agent of Kalidou Koulibaly, the captain of the national team.
Players from the Diambars Institute in training.
© Elimane Ndao / France 24
"Signing for a European club is our dream here," he says, even if the young defender has a preference.
“I would especially like to play in England.
This is my dream.
I will continue to perform well here and take my chance if it arises,” he said, smiling.
During this period of the World Cup, he closely follows the matches of the national team and dreams of becoming a future Senegalese international.
Abdoulaye does not only excel on the pitch.
“He is by far the best student in his class,” says Chérif Sow, head of communications at the Institute.
Apart from football, the residents, detected from the age of 13, also go to school.
They are housed and fed free of charge by the academy, which thus deploys large investments throughout the course of young footballers, hoping for added value by placing them, once adults, on the lucrative market of European football championships.
The academy is privately funded and presents itself as a non-profit enterprise.
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“Our first objective is to place players in Europe.
We train to sell,” says Cheikh Moussa Camara, the technical director of the Diambars Institute, without waffling.
“We train players for the top level.
And so far, it is the European clubs that have the means to support our young people and offer them a better future.
In Africa, we unfortunately do not yet have the means to keep our players.
The top level is Europe.
The sale of players is the main source of income for Diambars who also relies on training compensation on the transfers of his ex-residents throughout their careers.
“This premium is set between 5 and 10%” of transfers often involving millions of euros on the European transfer window, specifies Chérif Sow.
Academies galore
Diambars is not the first academy of the modern era of Senegalese football.
Before her, Génération Foot founded in 2000, can claim to have had the same success.
It offered Senegal Sadio Mané, one of the greatest footballers in the country's history and another generation of talented footballers.
By training a plethora of talents, the academies have largely contributed to the recent successes of Senegalese football.
"It is not a coincidence.
National team players are well trained either here or in Europe.
That makes all the difference.
This is what makes Senegal strong.
For 20 years, we have invested in youth football.
In Africa, apart from the Maghreb countries which copy the Western model, there are few African countries which have begun to anticipate the training of young people”, adds Cheikh Moussa Camara.
Several European clubs have jumped at the chance by forming partnerships with Senegalese academies.
Diambars collaborates with Olympique de Marseille, Génération Foot with FC Metz.
Dakar Sacré Coeur, another academy set up in the Senegalese capital, has joined forces with Olympique Lyonnais.
Senegal also attracted Paris Saint-Germain.
In May 2021, a football academy was inaugurated in Ngaparou 80 kilometers south of Dakar by the French club.
Several other training centers belonging in particular to former Senegalese footballers will come out of the ground in the years to come.
The former international Demba Ba has thus invested three million euros for the construction of a center on the way to making Senegal the new West African hub for the training of young footballers.
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