That of Abdulai Juma Bah (Freetown, Sierra Leone, 2006) is a story like a movie. The one who is going to be a new Manchester City player after slamming the door on Valladolid is a unique case of an unknown footballer who one day very recently left his native Sierra Leone and today is already in the elite of world football.
Valladolid today issued a harsh statement against Juma, 18, alleging breach of contract, unilateral breach of contract and also sent a message to City and the player: “We gave him the opportunity of his life.”
Juma made his debut on September 15 with Valladolid Promesas of the Second RFEF and Pezzolano gave him the opportunity to debut in the First Division, at the age of 18, on the 21st of that same month he made his debut with the first team against Real Sociedad. Seen and Unseen he was already among the greats just a few months after leaving his native Sierra Leone.
The story of Juma Bah’s signing for Valladolid in the summer of 2024 is one of those why football is global and so big that it allows the life of an entire family to improve and dreams that very recently seemed impossible to be fulfilled. A boy who starts playing in the street around Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, who helps his family by working in a bakery in the Congo neighborhood market and ends up called up five months later by a historic team from one of the best world leagues.
It was Chernor Musa Jalloh, a talent scout in the African country, who realized that Juma was not one of the many young people who spend hours and hours with the ball at their feet as the only safe passage of entertainment during their days. At that time, when he was barely 15 years old, he played with the Giant of Freetown Academy youth team. Jalloh opened the doors to AIK Freetong, a team from the Sierra Leone Third Division. In just one year, they realized that they were facing something different than usual and he was loaned to the Freetonian SLIFA, of the country’s Premier League, with the aim of growing physically by training and competing with players older than him. His first trip to Europe takes place in 2023, when he participates in Italy in the Viareggio Youth Cup with FC Kallon.
Already with a name in Sierra Leone football, the national team calls him up for a friendly match against Morocco and for four other matches. The debut, to this day, still resists.
Real Valladolid crosses his life
Musa Jalloh’s relationship with Patrick Mork, a Global Soccer Management agent based in Alicante, lays the first stone for Juma’s arrival in Spanish football. Mork detects the demand in Spain for physical profiles with easy adaptation to the peninsular climate and approaches several clubs with his project. Domingo Catoira and Pachu Martínez open the doors of their office in Zorrilla at the beginning of 2024 and receive the offer from the Swedish representative to cover part of the flights and hotels to Gambia and Sierra Leone, convinced that Real Valladolid will like several of the players What do you have in your portfolio?
Pachu travels to Africa in May 2024 to see the footballers proposed by Mork and Musa Jalloh play in person and it will take little for Juma Bah to awaken the interest of the member of the Pucelana technical secretariat. His 195 centimeters impose and they agree to a transfer with a purchase option. If the trip to Africa had already been an odyssey, getting Juma to obtain the papers to travel to Spain was the next challenge.
“I am a fan of Real Valladolid”
With the illusion of the European dream very close, complications arise in obtaining a visa. After saying goodbye to his parents and his three older brothers in Sierra Leone, the last step is in Guinea, at the Spanish embassy in Conakry, where there is no way they will allow the footballer to travel to Spain. One of those coincidences in life, another, turns the difficulties around. A person from Valladolid and a “Real Valladolid fan” makes things easier almost miraculously and the player manages to fly.
Since then, installed in the Real Valladolid Young Players residence in Parquesol, he trained with the Juvenil until the sale of Boyomo, injuries and problems for Pezzolano in defense precipitated everything. A match with the reserve team in Langreo, starter, good feelings and just a week later, with number 35, to the first team call. And debut in First Division, as a starter, against Real Sociedad.
Since then he has played 12 games in LaLiga with Pezzolano, Álvaro Rubio and Diego Cocca. Now Guardiola awaits him at Manchester City, although the group’s intention is for him to go out on loan. We will see how far this 18-year-old centre-back, who six months ago was in Sierra Leone and has been signed by one of the most powerful clubs on the planet, goes.
