I’m just a boy from Senegal who carries the spirit of home everywhere I go. Before the stadiums, before the cameras, before the Premier League, it was just me, my family, and a belief that hard work and heart could open doors far beyond what we could see.

 

Growing up in Dakar shaped everything about me, my discipline, my mentality, my resilience. Those early days taught me that you move with purpose, you show respect, and you never forget who poured into you. My culture raised me. My family protected me. Senegal gave me my soul.

 

Football took me on a journey I never could have dreamed of. From Hoffenheim’s academy, where I first learned what it meant to fight for a future, to Hamburg, where I began proving that I belonged at the professional level, to Lille, where everything accelerated and the world started paying attention, to Everton, where I stepped onto one of football’s biggest stages in the Premier League.

 

Now, that journey continues at Aston Villa, competing at the highest level in England and on Europe’s biggest nights in the UEFA Champions League. Each step forward has brought new challenges, new expectations, and new responsibility, not just to perform, but to represent who I am and where I come from with pride.

 

Representing Belgium at the international level has been one of the greatest honors of my life. To wear that shirt, knowing the sacrifices that got me there, will always mean more than words can capture. Having already experienced the World Cup once, I move forward with my eyes set on doing it again, stronger, wiser, and more driven than ever.

 

No matter where the game takes me, I walk with Senegal in my heart, its music, its rhythm, its people, its faith.

 

Everything I do is for the boy I used to be, and for the boy in Senegal today who dreams of something bigger. My journey is global, but my soul has never left home.