This Thursday, Floyd Samba experienced an evening that he will not forget. The young striker born in 2009 made his professional debut with Manchester City and immediately distinguished himself with a double against Norwich (5-0) in the League Cup. A sensational entry for the man who had already stood out in the Citizens’ youth categories, with 17 goals in 34 matches with the U18s and 10 goals in 17 matches with the U21s. His profile is already particularly followed across the Channel, but also interesting internationally since he has three nationalities. Called up with France U16, Samba then played with the English U16 and U17 selections before recently receiving a call-up with Germany U19. A necessarily special trajectory for the son of Christopher Samba, former professional defender born in Créteil and Congolese international.
And this Thursday, with the Cityzens, his performance obviously did not go unnoticed in England, especially as a top striker. This Friday morning, the Daily Mail was particularly excited with a particularly evocative title: “A new star is born in Man City”while The Sun evoked for his part the “Floyd Samba’s sparkling debut”. And the main person concerned did not hide his emotion after this first professional appearance. “Debuts like that are incredible! I couldn’t believe it myself, but this is just the beginning, a great career awaits me. I have no words. It was an incredible match. It’s my dream, and seeing it come true is simply the greatest gift in the world right now. »
He has already played for three selections
Promoted to the number 9 position, a position he had never occupied before, the young player also explained how he prepared for this meeting. “Enzo spoke to me on Tuesday, telling me he was considering playing me at number nine, and then as the date got closer I knew I was going to be a starter and I just had to prepare myself mentally and physically for the game. I think I did pretty well today. On my first goal, seeing Allan, I knew I had to be on the lookout. Looking at players like Erling, you see that he is always ready to take the ball back. So I had to be ready to place my head. When I received the ball for the second goal, I knew I had to go back because Rayan Ait-Nouri had no other choice. I knew I had space around me and once I was in that space I had a good chance to score. »
Enough to satisfy his trainer, who explained why he had decided to try the Samba en pointe bet. “I asked him over the last three or four days, when I decided to play him in nine, if he had ever played in nine in the past. He told me he had never played. But I think he can… He’s not a new guy for sure, but he was good! He is young, full of energy, he is strong, he can finish, he can combine… In the first half, he made good decisions in terms of the assists he made. But they are young, and we have to take it easy, easy with them. We have Antoine Semenyo there, it depends a bit on the game plan, we can use Phil Foden or Rayan Cherki as a false nine… But, for sure, he played tonight, he was good and hopefully we can give him more opportunities. » A first which left its mark, but which only constitutes the beginning for Samba, already presented as one of the young talents to follow very closely on the Manchester City side this season. And he should have the opportunity to shine several times this season.
