Junior Sambia, here against Lille in December 2020, took possession of the right lane of the MHSC.
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Alain Robert / Sipa
With a magnificent free kick, Junior Sambia put his partners back on track, then led 1-0 by Bordeaux.
MHSC ultimately won 3-1.
Eleven months earlier, the footballer, placed in intensive care after contracting Covid19, was fighting for his life.
A traumatic experience.
"I want to forget about it, I want to move on," he explains.
What a blow of firecracker!
Junior Sambia took on the appearance of Juninho at the Mosson stadium where Montpellier dominated Bordeaux (3-1).
The free kick was just over 25 meters in the center, when the right side took the ball coveted by Savanier and Mollet, with authority.
“We are three designated to be able to take the free kicks.
The goal is to turn ... and put it at the bottom.
"
From words to gestures, his strike ended in Costil's skylight, who only accompanied him with his gaze without making the slightest gesture.
An essential goal, since Montpellier was then led 0-1 after Hwang's opening scoring.
“Junior has already put a lot of free kicks in training, details his coach Michel Der Zakarian.
He has a way of hitting good at him.
He crosses the ball well.
He put a straight strike.
Whether for penalties or free kicks, we have players who are good in this register.
Whoever feels the best hits.
This goal sounded the revolt of Montpellier people fully concerned by the race for Europe.
Artificial coma in April 2020
That Sambia made the decision to take this free kick and especially that he was given the opportunity to do so, testify to the rise of the player recruited in Niort, in L2, in 2018. Sambia is no longer Junior than by the first name.
On the left, in the middle in the axis or on the side, it was for a long time the stop-gap of the MHSC, able to play at all the positions without ever settling there.
But that was before.
Before “he understood the job, explained Pascal Baills recently.
He puts the intensity and the investment and this is reflected in his matches.
He has another approach.
"
Its purpose puts another topicality around its name.
For the layman, Sambia is first and foremost this player, who, in April 2020, was the first professional footballer hospitalized after contracting Covid-19.
A serious form of the disease, to the point of being plunged into an artificial coma.
“I couldn't breathe anymore.
It was a disaster.
I was afraid.
I am one of the causes of the final shutdown in France.
"
"The fate of each one is traced, I took mine again on the ground".
A traumatic experience.
“I want to forget about it, I want to move on.
I would like to stop talking about it, I would like people to talk to me only about football, he explained to
Midi Libre
.
I want to leave it all behind.
An experience from which he necessarily came out changed.
“I'm still the same, but maybe happier.
I thank the good Lord every day for being in good health.
The fate of each one is traced, I took mine again on the ground.
Today I am happy.
"
Happy in life and happy with the ball.
Against Bordeaux, Sambia not only scored his first goal of the season.
He has multiplied initiatives.
As with every appearance since Michel Der Zakarian gave him the right lane, on November 1 in Saint-Etienne, in place of Arnaud Souquet.
An invigorating choice.
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Languedoc-Roussillon
Aquitaine
Montpellier
Girondins of Bordeaux
Covid 19
Soccer
Bordeaux
MHSC
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