**Iliman Ndiaye: The Senegal Star's Journey from Rejection to the Premier League**

Iliman Ndiaye is one of those footballers whose career path does not get enough attention. He did not come through the traditional route of a top academy, get loaned out to progressively bigger clubs, and arrive in the Premier League with a well-documented highlight reel. Instead, he was released by Marseille as a teenager, spent time in England's fifth tier, rebuilt himself at Sheffield United, returned to Marseille, and eventually found his way back to the Premier League with Everton.
It has not been a straight line. It has been the kind of journey that requires patience, confidence, and a willingness to take a step backward to move forward. This is a closer look at how it happened.
**Who is Iliman Ndiaye?**
Ndiaye is a Senegalese international attacking player who joined Everton in the summer of 2024. He was born on July 6, 2000, in Rouen, France, and grew up eligible to play for either France or Senegal. He ultimately chose Senegal, the country of his parents, and has represented the Teranga Lions since 2022.
He plays centrally as an attacking midfielder or in a mobile forward role, though he is also comfortable drifting wide right. He is best known for his close control, quick feet, and ability to draw defenders toward him before releasing a pass or bursting past them.
**Early Career: From Marseille Rejection to Boreham Wood**
Ndiaye's first taste of academy football came at Marseille, one of the biggest clubs in French football. He impressed enough to be part of their youth setup, but the club eventually decided not to keep him. Being released at that age is a difficult moment for any young player, but for Ndiaye it became a turning point rather than the end of the road.
He moved to England and joined Boreham Wood, a club based in Hertfordshire that played in the National League. The gap between the Marseille academy and the fifth tier of English football was huge, but it gave him something valuable: senior minutes. At Boreham Wood, he learned how physical and direct lower-league English football can be. He had to be sharper, quicker, and stronger than the players around him, and that education shaped the player he later became.
His performances at Boreham Wood did not go unnoticed. In 2019, Sheffield United brought him into their academy setup, and within a year he was breaking into the first-team picture.
**The Sheffield United Breakthrough**
Ndiaye made his professional debut for Sheffield United in 2020, but his real emergence came after the club was relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2020–21 season. In the Championship, he became a regular starter and quickly gave supporters something to get excited about.
During the 2021–22 campaign, he was one of the most creative players in the division, helping the Blades reach the play-offs. Then came the season that changed everything. In 2022–23, Sheffield United finished second and earned automatic promotion back to the Premier League, and Ndiaye was the driving force behind that run. He contributed a double-figure goal tally alongside a steady supply of assists, was named in the Championship's Team of the Season, and was voted Sheffield United's Player of the Season.
He was everywhere that season. Dropping deep to collect possession, turning defenders in tight spaces, pressing from the front, and arriving in the box at the right moment. His performances attracted attention, and it was no surprise when bigger clubs began circling. He was linked with Premier League moves during the January 2023 window, but he stayed at Bramall Lane to finish the job, and Sheffield United fans rewarded him with a memorable farewell as he prepared to move on the following summer.
**The Marseille Homecoming**
In the summer of 2023, Marseille came back for him. The club that had released him years earlier paid a reported fee in the region of €20 million to bring him home. It was a story that wrote itself: the boy let go by the club returning as an important signing.
But the season at Marseille was complicated. The club changed managers multiple times, with Marcelino, Gennaro Gattuso, and Jean-Louis Gasset each taking charge at different points. That instability affected the whole squad, and Ndiaye's own form fluctuated as a result. Still, there were genuinely memorable moments. He scored in Marseille's home win over Lyon, and in March 2024 he delivered one of the standout goals of their season in a 2–0 win at Paris Saint-Germain.
He made close to 40 appearances across all competitions that season and added an international tournament appearance to his CV, but he was not entirely settled. When Everton came in with an offer the following summer, the move made sense for all parties.
**Everton: A Fresh Start in the Premier League**
Everton signed Ndiaye in August 2024 for a fee understood to be around £15 million, with potential add-ons. He was not their only new signing that summer, but he was arguably the most exciting one from a purely footballing perspective.
Under Sean Dyche, Everton played a structured and physical game, and Ndiaye gave them something slightly different in the attacking third. He provided natural dribbling, clever movement, and the kind of unpredictability that can unlock deep defenses. He scored his first goal for the club in the EFL Cup against Doncaster Rovers in September 2024, and he quickly became one of the more trusted attacking options in the squad.
His return to English football brought him back to an environment where he seems most comfortable. He had already proven in the Championship that he can handle the demands of English football, and his early months at Everton reinforced that. He is still growing into the role, and there is a sense that the best is yet to come.
**How He Plays**
If you watch Ndiaye closely, the first thing you notice is his balance. He has a low center of gravity, which makes him extremely difficult to knock off the ball. Defenders often try to step into his space, and he simply shifts his weight, shields the ball, and buys himself time.
His dribbling is technical rather than purely reliant on pace. He uses feints, sharp turns, and small touches in tight areas instead of trying to run past everyone in a straight line. That makes him particularly effective between the lines, where the space is crowded and the margins are small.
He also works unusually hard for a player with his attacking profile. Throughout his career, managers have praised his pressing and his willingness to track back. At Sheffield United, he was often the front line of the team's press, and he has carried that habit with him.
The main criticism has been consistency in the final third. His decision-making can be erratic at times — he sometimes holds onto the ball a touch too long or attempts an extra trick when a simple pass would do. It is the classic challenge for creative players, and it is the area where he has the most room to grow.
**International Career with Senegal**
Ndiaye made his senior debut for Senegal in 2022, after choosing the Teranga Lions over France. Senegal had won the Africa Cup of Nations in early 2022, so he stepped into a squad with high expectations and genuine depth in attacking positions.
He was part of Senegal's squad for the 2023 AFCON, held in early 2024 in Ivory Coast. He scored in the group stage in a 3–1 win over Cameroon, and he also found the net in the round of 16 against the host nation. That match ended in a penalty shootout, and Senegal fell short, exiting the tournament earlier than many expected. For Ndiaye personally, though, the tournament reinforced his place in the national setup.
**What Comes Next**
Ndiaye is still in his mid-20s, which is a comfortable age for an attacking player. He has already experienced more twists in his career than many players do in a lifetime: rejection at a big club, lower-league football in England, a promotion-winning season, a return to France, and now a permanent home in the Premier League.
The next step is about turning his evident talent into consistent output. If he can add more goals and assists to his game while keeping the qualities that make him so difficult to defend against, he has every chance of becoming a key figure for Everton and Senegal for years to come.
His career has never followed the easy path, but that has always seemed to bring the best out of him.