About Salam

In 2010, a young Malian boy of the Tuareg ethnic group, commonly known as “Tamachek”, heard about the JMG Mali Academy. A football fan, he was already giving up his revision hours to kick a ball, despite the reluctance of a father who was a teacher and therefore very focused on studies, who was gradually going to let it happen. Thus, the father as much as possible tried to accompany Salam in his football practice, provided that the school was not neglected. But the compromise was difficult to obtain, the child only dreamed of leather…
After some information taken here and there, the boy was taken to Arsenal, the small recruitment cell “out of detection period” set up to respond to the many daily requests from parents who kept coming to find out about the entry procedures… He is entrusted to the good care of Mr Guindo, who was in charge of Arsenal thus had the management of the retained staff pending a possible definitive integration of the JG Mali Academy. This was probably the best option to hope one day to be an Academician JMG Mali.
On the playing field, the boy noticed himself immediately because it was unusual to see young people from his ethnic group there, and today he is a worthy ambassador for them, even attracting many vocations at this level. Thin and elegant, the boy was skillful and had a good “feel” for the game. But he seemed a little “slow” or even nonchalant compared to the other kids of his generation. What was supposed to be a weak point in his evaluation, after analysis, will prove to be advantageous for him. Indeed, his morphology suggested that he would grow quite well and gain in strength and power, to be more explosive, especially since at the same age, he was already a little “higher” than most of his training buddies!
Wounded at the beginning of the final course at the end of 2011 for which he had been selected, Salam will not be retained this time but will not give up anything, although strongly affected by what he had to consider as a failure. Remaining in Arsenal and deaf to the injunctions of his parents who wanted him to give priority back to his studies, he will continue to train and will above all practice to compensate for his relative slowness of movement by insisting on his strong points: his vision of the game, and especially his passion for Football which gave him an unlimited motivation !!! In 2012, when the pressure from parents was getting stronger on his frail shoulders because of the approach of the back-to-school season, which would have been difficult for him to escape if he had not become an academician, Coach Jean Marc GUILLOU (JMG) will offer him a special two-week internship during the Academy’s holidays! He will be detained only a few days later. Hard worker and not very expressive off the field at first, it is a pure product of the JMG philosophy today, one of those to whom the method advocated at the Academy has brought a real added value. His performances with the Malian U17 national team and his signature at AS MONACO after having been solicited by many major European clubs in July 2018 are a fine example of this. And chances are, things are just getting started for him.