Melissa. You should remember the girl’s name because without that precious human being, there wouldn’t be Amadou Onana as we know him today.Two nights ago, he played against Manchester United in the Premier League for Everton at Goodison Park, mostly thanks to his older sister. But how, you might ask?Well, for a start, we should give her credit for believing in her sibling despite the fact some youth coaches in Belgium some five-six years ago considered the Senegalese teenager nothing but ‘trash’. Yes, that was the exact word of Zulte Waregem’s tactician.crazy..vorletzte saison noch bei uns & jetzt gegen CR7#amadouonana #everton #cr7 pic.twitter.com/1R2eA65IsM— ♥️ (@emma_hsv) October 10, 2022 And it was Melissa who stood up for him then when he needed that support vigorously; when he wondered if it was a mistake that his family left Senegal for Belgium for the sake of his career.But Melissa kept believing in her younger brother, constantly filming him playing and badgering clubs around Europe with the videos. Thanks to that approach, she finally hustled him into a trial at Bundesliga slot Hoffenheim in this way.Amadou Onana has made it into SofaScore’s Under 21’s Team Of The Month. 👏Some talent, some signing by Kevin Thelwell. pic.twitter.com/Irf9JjFZFW— Everton Extra (@Everton_Extra) October 5, 2022 As The Sunday Times reports, to get to Hoffenheim in Germany, it’s a five-hour train journey from Brussels, with several changes, and Amadou and Melissa were going together. He didn’t have an agent, so she was going to fulfil the role, but she was desperately sick. “She had cancer,” Amadou says, “and was very ill. She had just gone through chemo and had the [infusion] bag [attached to her]. Her head was shaved. We had some issues with the train, and she had to run…” He tails off, and maybe you can picture the poignant scene.”All those things that we’ve been through …” he adds. “That’s my fuel, man.”##EDITORS_CHOICE##Onana smashed his trial, compelling Hoffenheim’s youth manager at the time to sign him after the first day. From there, he has propelled and excelled, graduating to first-team football with Hamburg in Bundesliga II in 2020. Then came Lille the following year, where his rangy dynamism in midfield caught the attention of several Premier League clubs and where he tasted the Champions League and became a senior Belgium international.And now Everton, where he moved to in a £33 million deal. “This is what I’ve been doing my whole life. I’m going to fight, because nothing has been given to me, because hard work is the only thing that pays off. I mean, there is no secret. Just work.”Amadou is 21, and, The Sunday Times emphasizes, speaks five languages and is working towards a sixth, while studying for a Belgian further education diploma and writing music in his spare time.Les Dogues continue to fall apart at West Ham agree a $40 million deal for OnanaOnana was raised in a household of 14 family members, including his siblings, cousins, mother, aunt and grandparents, in the Colobane district of Dakar. “It’s kind of a tough area, but football is the thing that brings people together,” he says. “My first games were in the street, lots of kids competing. It felt like the Champions League!”By 12, his talent was outgrowing his surroundings, and he pressed his mother to move to Belgium, where his father lived. He, his mum, a brother and a sister eventually went there.”Props to my mum. Raising three kids alone in a different country,” he says. “She did every job she could. I could write a book about my mum, a Harry Potter saga in five books. She is a very strong woman – I am surrounded by strong women in my family. She’s a big fan of football, who after my games calls to say, ‘You did this well, you didn’t do that, next time improve.'”Yet the funny thing was, when we came to Belgium, she was, ‘I don’t care about football, just focus on school. As long as you bring me good grades, you can keep playing and if you don’t, football’s finished.’ It was clear.”I’ve always felt that if my mum left all she had in Senegal to give us a better life, we have to pay her back somehow. She doesn’t ask for that, but I feel responsible.”Melissa, 13 years his senior, got busy, “following me everywhere with a camera, taking videos of any game I played”. Everton bring their biggest reinforcement yet – Onana for 40 million##NAJAVA_MECA_6716154##When she organised the trial at Hoffenheim, she and Amadou were summoned to Zulte. “We drove one hour to get there and the meeting lasted five minutes,” he says. “One of the managers was like, ‘You’re not ready, you’re not going to make it.’ So at the trial, that sentence was in my head the whole time. I was [thinking]: ‘I’m going to make it – just for that guy.'”But I’m not mad at them, I want to thank them.” Why Everton now? “My sister and I plan my career and all the clubs I’ve been through are known for developing young players and bringing them to next step,” he says. “The connection between Everton and Belgian players has always been great. I spoke to Big Rom [Romelu Lukaku], and he was like, ‘You’ll enjoy it there, the atmosphere, fans.’ I spoke to Roberto [Martinez], who had a great time here.”And last but not least, I spoke to the manager [Lampard], who played one of the biggest parts in my decision. He was calling me every day. Whatever I needed, he was there for me and he’s still doing that, which I appreciate because I’ve had several managers but not always great human beings, and he’s a great human being.”Lampard snatched Onana from the Hammers!But music is still his one hidden passion. “I was really good at school and I liked maths. There were subjects like languages where I didn’t really have to do anything to get good grades, but in maths I had to dig in and work hard to understand it. That was kind of a challenge,” Onana says, grinning. “And I’m a guy who likes challenges,” concludes he.
