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If you have visited Barcelona, you will have passed through L’Hospitalet, the hometown of Adama Traore.
You probably haven’t stopped to visit the myriad of housing estates, built in the 1960s to relocate people from low-quality housing on the old docks, as well as the Roma community, and then increased by immigration from South America. and Africa.
It is a city next to a city, part of the urban expansion of the municipal areas but with its own identity, a modern multicultural Catalan conurbation and the gateway to Barcelona.
In one limit the main football club of the city plays, in the other is the airport, where tourists begin their trip to the most recognized places of the Sagrada Familia and Las Ramblas in the city of Gaudí, Picasso and Messi. But from La Florida, the most densely populated neighborhood in L’Hospitalet, you can hear the roar of the Camp Nou.
Traore still remembers when he was seven years old, lying in bed at one in the morning a few hundred meters from the stadium, listening to the crowd celebrating Ronaldinho’s extraordinary debut goal for Barça, when he picked up the ball in his own half. and beat two men. and unleashed an impressive blow from 35 yards.
For the son of migrants from Mali who had made the trip to Europe and settled, like many others, in La Florida de l’Hospitalet, it was a roar that inspired a child.
“For me, Ronaldinho’s arrival in Barcelona was incredible, something magical,” says Traore. Then Andrés Iniesta and shortly after all these players came. But the one who started it all was Ronaldinho. At my age, Ronaldinho was the best. ‘
For complicated internal political reasons, Ronaldinho’s debut in 2003 began five minutes after midnight and concluded shortly before 2 a.m. Even for Catalan nocturnal habits it is a bit late.
Therefore, seven-year-old Traore was in bed, although apparently not sleeping. “I will always remember his first goal against Sevilla,” he remembers. ‘He controlled the ball in the middle line and passed two players. My house was not far from the Camp Nou, so I heard the screams and noise in my bed.
“The game was at midnight and they were giving people free food to watch. The stadium was packed. And I saw it the next day. [Before Ronaldinho] Barcelona could not challenge Real Madrid, because they had the Galacticos and they won everything. Then he entered.
Soon, Traore would have an up-close view of his hero. Discovered by the Barça scouts, he would train in La Masia, the 18th century farmhouse that at that time was a pension for young players. Across the street, the first team used to train and back then you could see through a chain link fence.
“Before we had free passes to watch the games and we saw him training with La Masia,” says Traore. “It was amazing and magical.”
Traore was also making a name for himself, albeit in a more local context. Small street soccer was plentiful and among those competing to be the best, the team of five with the Traore brothers, Moha and Adama, was the one that beat.
“When I was little, my brother, my friends and I used to play a tournament against everyone, five against five. People knew us, because I played for Barcelona and my brother played for Espanyol. We were winning most of our games and they said: “Oh, we know where there are two brothers, one playing in Barcelona and the other in Espanyol. They have a team of friends and they are very good, ” then people came from all over. [the city] And used to challenge us
“I was 14 or 15 at the time and I used to play 17 and 18. We played everyone where we grew up and it was a lot of fun.”
While L’Hospitalet is a “good place,” Traore insists, it inevitably has its fair share of problems that spoil most densely packed properties. He witnessed knife fights and saw weapons brandished, but a different code prevailed on the makeshift soccer fields.
‘There were some gangs [but] whenever we played against them, we focused on football, ”he says. That was good too. You could play a gang member and whatever is going on in his personal life, he would forget that … all that would matter would be football. ”
And Traore’s eyes were on a jackpot.
“Mentality is very important,” he says. ‘Your parents can educate you, and that’s important, but it’s also about what you want out of life. If you have things clear and you want your dream and you think you can achieve it, [means] the whole world.
“ My dream was to be a footballer and I worked for it and this was what mattered, so what [going on] everywhere, I didn’t care.
Traore is often described as the fastest man in the Premier League, and some friends tried to persuade him to take to the track and be a sprinter. NFL scouts tried to bring him to the United States, but he resisted. “I wanted to be a footballer,” says Traore. “My dream was always to play soccer.”
He had his moments at the Camp Nou, but only two of them, coming in for Neymar in the 4-0 victory over Granada in La Liga and Cesc Fabregas in the 2-1 victory over Ajax in the Champions League.
But after graduating, he was sold to Aston Villa, and so began his curious journey through English football. He didn’t make much of an impression at Villa Park, but at Middlesbrough, under Garry Monk and Tony Pulis, he thrived in the Championship and was signed by the Wolves when they reached the Premier League in August 2018.
With Nuno Espirito Santo, he has matured to become one of the most explosive players in the top flight and last month, after some false starts due to the pandemic and despite Mali’s proposals, he made his full debut for Spain, Substitute appearances against Portugal and Switzerland have earned him rave reviews in his country of birth, although his first outing in Ukraine ended in a shocking defeat.
At 24, he has experienced a multiplicity of cultures. He speaks Catalan, Spanish, French, English and Bambara, a Malian language. Being in Wolves, he understands Portuguese and yet is so integrated into English life that he is now a proponent of Sunday roast dinners, although as a Muslim he does not eat pork.
“I love you,” he says. ‘If you take out the pork, I have it all!’
Roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, gravy?
I can’t eat them all all the time, but I like Sunday dinners, mixed with a little sauce.
‘Catalonia is part of Spain, so I have everything: Spanish, Mali, I have everything in me. And that’s a good thing for me, since I’ve been in England a long time, so I know the habits of England: cup of tea, Sunday dinner, that’s good. I like to know different cultures, to adapt, to know how they think. I take things [from everywhere] because it is something beautiful to share, beautiful for me to have different cultures. ‘
His breakneck speed will invariably come up in conversation and he worked with Olympic relay gold medalist Darren Campbell at Boro. Traore is also aware of the debate started by Raheem Sterling, that commentators focus too much on the speed and power of black players without acknowledging their other qualities.
‘I do not think so [speed] is [to do] with color, ‘he says. ‘I think if you talk about Adama or Sterling, the first thing you think about is speed.
‘For me, it doesn’t matter because I know what I have, I know how I play, I know what I give and if people think that my ability is only speed, that’s fine, no problem.
Because later, in the game, I can do other things, so it will be a surprise. It doesn’t bother me, I know what I have and also what I work for ”.
When he first arrived at Wolves, he found his speed was hampered by foul play, defenders battling him to slow him down, pulling on his shoulders and arms. The club doctor was the one who came up with an ingenious solution: Before the game, there is now the familiar sight of the staff rubbing baby oil on their arms.
“The staff here had a very clever idea because they knew I was having a problem with my shoulder,” he says. The opponents were grabbing my arm so I wouldn’t move, pulling on my shoulder. If you put the oil, it is impossible for them to catch me, especially if I also move.
‘In the first game it was a lot of fun because a lot of players grabbed my arm and couldn’t catch me. They asked, “What happened?” and i kept saying i didn’t know!
Everybody knows it now, but it doesn’t matter. It is important to me because the players have to use another tactic. Now that I have the oil on my arm, I can slip [away]! ‘
At Wolves, he is likely to sign a new contract soon. However, when he returns to L’Hospitalet, friends always urge him to return to the club of his youth. Perhaps there is a feeling at Barcelona that he is one of those elusive young players who also slipped from their clutches.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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