Juma Bah: the baker in Sierra Leone who is already dazzling in Valladolid

The young man Abdulai Juma Bah has been in the news since the last day of the league that he made his debut in Real Valladolid in the league, after jumping from Youth to the first team in record time, and leaving the recent past in his country, Sierra Leonehelping the family bakery business.

At 18 years old, he showed that he can have a bright future because in his first match in the top category of Spanish football he played an outstanding role, he knows how to calm his nerves, even physically and, more than all, psychologically. intensity, ended up suffering a small cramp before the crash ended.

As the player himself admitted to EFE, through his agent in Sierra Leone, Chernor Musa Jalloh, football has always been “his passion and dream”, which is why his debut at Real Valladolid was “an incredible incredible and beautiful” that I have never experienced. had before

He arrived in Valladolid thanks to Pachu Martínez, chief scout of the Blanquivioleta club, who trusted Juma’s other agent, Patrick Mork, who worked with Chernor Musa for more than twenty years, when he told him that the young player might be interested from Sierra Leone. to him, as happened in his day with the Ghanaian Salisu, currently in Monaco.

In Mork’s opinion, “Juma is special, a very complete central defender, big, with an amazing body, good passing, quick and with a good mind”, which was already confirmed in his first meeting with Paulo Si Pezzolano’s team, who did not hesitate to start him against Real Sociedad despite only training for a few days with the first team.

Juma is “delighted and happy” in Valladolid, as he acknowledged. He lives in the club’s Young Players’ Residence, where he goes as soon as he finishes training to “pray, rest and have fun saying things about the club, on the phone, to his father, Abdul Karim Bah, and to his mother. , Umu Bah.” He left them both in Sierra Leone, along with his sister, and two older “half-brothers”, as well as friends from his community, and from the teams he played for, all from the African country .

He is living a dream. It started in his community, Congo Market Freetown, when at the age of 10 he started playing football “with bigger boys and older boys” in Nicol Street, although he also had to work to support his family.

Football on a dusty and cobbled street

Sometimes he brought firewood to his father’s bakery, and helped him make bread, and he also worked at home with his mother, making meatballs and fish for business, because they couldn’t grind, so’ t he “broke the meat. ” and fish with local wooden utensils, from their community market.

But when he went out to play on the street, he put all his passion into the ball, which was first appreciated by Chernor Musa Jalloh, who saw him when he was playing a match against AIK Freetong with his team, Giant Freetown Academy, in a “dusty and stony street.” He recognized and appreciated in him “his size, movement, control and passing”, which reminded him of Pogba, and recommended AIK Freetong to sign him, the next day – April 6, 2021 – and from there he moved to Freetonian SLIFA , from the country’s Premier League.

Mork, agent of Global Soccer Management, was the first to contact Real Valladolid, as he was clear that Juma “is a gem, with many qualities” and it seems that he was not mistaken, given his development in such a short time.

Juma was informed of Real Valladolid’s interest in signing him and that’s when his new life began. Luck was on his side, or fate, because he had problems at the embassy getting a visa but a security agent, from Valladolid and a fan of his city’s team, helped him solve them.

He wants to enjoy this experience, which will allow him to be very close to his “idol and symbol”, Antonio Rüdiger (Real Madrid), and the team he has followed for many years, Real Madrid, but his goal is to “be an entrepreneur and philanthropist”, to develop his community “in the hospital” and “help society”.

Transferred with purchase option to Pucela

His adaptation to Real Valladolid was quick, and he was clear that the team “will fight to compete and continue in the First Division”, because there is “a great dressing room” that welcomed him “very well” from the first day, ” with a good environment”, which he hopes to continue living. Although he does not like to talk, his “modesty, good behavior, humility and education”, in the words of his agents, will surely serve as a springboard in his career, which has just begun, at a Real Valladolid where he came in quality on loan, with the option to buy.