Arriva dal Mali, ha 23 anni e la sua storia ha avuto un lieto fine. Samake Boubacar, oggi un calciatore professionista, e giochera’ nell’Arezzo Calcio. Boubacar ha alle spalle una storia difficile che passa, come quella di tanti altri, dai centri di accoglienza per rifugiati politici e migranti.
Five years ago he escaped from his hometown of Bamako, the capital of Mali, and left for Europe in search of a better future. His uncles paid for the trip to Libya, the boy had lost both his parents. Once in Libya, he reached the Italian coast on a boat in a journey of hope that lasted four days.
With the sea in a storm and the awareness that that journey could also be the last of his life, he reaches Sicily in September 2017. He is welcomed in a reception center, then the turning point in Avellino begins his career as a footballer in a Promotion championship. "My dream has always been to become a footballer - says 'Buba' as he is called by his teammates - in Mali, in my village, I played in the street with the other children. I lived with my uncles and it was them who took me to Libya telling me that there I could undertake the journey to Europe.
I was in Libya for a few months, then we left on the big boat. A journey that lasted 4 days during which I was very scared. At some points I even thought I wouldn't make it. We were in a small boat and we had to fight the stormy sea, until we were rescued by a large ship that took us to Sicily". And Sicily itself represented a turning point for Buba. "I was taken to Avellino.
And right there - adds the footballer - I told the operators of a center that I wanted to play football". He plays his first Promotion championship in Campania with 20 goals scored, in the meantime he works. So comes the call from San Tommaso, a company with which he plays in an Eccellenza championship and wins it, then a year in Serie D and 12 goals later comes the call from Licata, a Sicilian company.
It is in this club that his value is highlighted. A pure centre forward, with the physique of a cuirassier, his teammates and fans compare him to Lukaku and Drogba, he admires Immobile and Ibrahimovic and as a child he watched videos of Ronaldinho. It was with Licata that he became top scorer, with 10 goals in Group I of Serie D. His fame grows and other clubs are interested in him.
The new DS of Arezzo Paolo Giovannini is beating everyone to the punch. The negotiation was conducted in a short time and the player appeared at the stadium a few days ago, a few hours after the official announcements of the central defenders Bruni and Polvani and the under full-back Lorenzini, even though he is tied to the Sicilian club until June 30.
Amaranth president Guglielmo Manzo also had the player sign a work contract with one of his companies to extend his residence permit in Italy. Arezzo's call could now be for "Buba", the opportunity of a lifetime, the one for the definitive consecration at the ideal age to aspire to a brilliant career in the world of football.
EDITORIAL TEAM
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