Ryan Babel, Jurriën Timber, Noah Fadiga, Ruben Kluivert and Kik Pieri have a chance at the title this year Fashion Player 2021. One of them may soon call himself the best dressed footballer of the year. In a five-part series Football zone as official media partner of the Fashion Player Award 2021, one of the nominees always speaks. The first episode focuses on Noah Fadiga. The defender is the son of Senegal legend Khalilou Fadiga and is working at Heracles Almelo to realize his dream: to play in the Premier League.
By Mart Oude Nijeweeme and Kalum van Oudheusden
When Fadiga mentions the theme of fashion, a cautious smile automatically appears on his face. He’s not the only one in the Fadiga family who cares about his appearance. “My whole family looks good,” the right-back proudly says. “We like to present ourselves well. I have relatives who have their own fire to have. I think it’s something that gets passed on. Vain is a big word, but I’m serious about it. After or during my football career I would also like to be more involved with fashion. When? I’m not going to spend any time on that.”
Fadiga describes his style as urban. “I like to wear a sneaker with a hoodie. No, I don’t have a favorite brand. There are a number of players in the selection who can dress nicely. Rai Vloet for example. If I mention one player, I’m sure I’m not guys excludes.” The Club Brugge youth product notices a clear difference between the people in Belgium and the Netherlands. Fadiga describes Heracles as a ‘warm bath’ where he feels at home. “People are direct, they say it like it is,” said the defender. “I’ve never experienced that before. The people here are friendly, everyone is willing to help you. I also had a good time at Club Brugge and FC Volendam, but the working environment was different.”
Noah Fadiga, Ryan Babel, Jurriën Timber, Ruben Kluivert and Kik Pieri have a chance to win the Fashion Player Award 2021.
Fadiga, who made the final switch to Heracles after a rental period at Volendam last summer, notices that he has grown as a person in Almelo. “This is the first time I’ve been this far from home,” says the right-back. “You grow up and learn to stand up for yourself more. I’ve developed a stronger opinion, with a certain politeness of course. When you’re younger, you forget things faster. Your attention wanes. But I’m not someone who fills the skin of others swears. I try to focus mainly on my own tasks and work on my own development. I am a calm person.”
Busy
How different it was about four years ago. Fadiga, son of 37-time Senegalese international Khalilou Fadiga, struggled with the pressure the outside world was putting on him. He was often asked if he would ever become as good as his father. His father, who played for Paris Saint-Germain and Internazionale, among others, and reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup in 2002 with Senegal. “I used to feel the pressure to perform the same as my father. As a 16-year-old I had a very hard time with that. It’s not easy to be ‘the son of’. I didn’t like it when people asked if I like would become my father. That really appealed to me.”
Fadiga has now left that period behind him. “Pressure is what you accept and administer to yourself,” he says. “You decide about that yourself. The only one who can give me pressure is myself and my father. When my father comes to see me, I feel pressure, otherwise I don’t. In recent years I have dealt with that much better. A few years ago I did not know how to place that. I wondered if I would become a good football player at all. That regularly haunted my head, but I won’t let that happen anymore. I have confidence in my abilities and know what I have to do to become a better footballer. No one has to tell me that.”
Legend
Despite the fact that Fadiga maintains a warm relationship with his father, he rarely sees him. Khalilou Fadiga is part of the CAF (Confédération Africaine de Football), the African branch of FIFA, and is on the road a lot. “The times I do see him, we don’t always talk about football. We mainly talk about other things. My father is my best friend. We talk about family things, travel, my development.” The Heraclied does not see many similarities with his father. “I am a completely different player than my father. My father was not as fast as me, but he had a lot of insight. He could set someone free in front of the keeper with one pass.”
Khalilou Fadiga can hardly walk anonymously in Senegal. The number 10 of yesteryear wore the shirts of Inter and PSG, among other things, and is known as a legend in the African country. In his capacity as a member of the African Federation, he often speaks with other legends, including Brazil’s Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who he has recorded personal video messages for his son. “He meets and knows a lot of top players. Every now and then they send a video to show their support to me. It helps if they support you. Ronaldo said I should listen to my father and no one else. That’s funny and nice to hear. It’s nice messages to get, but I’m a calm person. I don’t get nervous easily. It’s not that I am awake at night because someone has said ‘hello’.”
Noah Fadiga is the son of Senegal legend Khalilou Fadiga and plays as a right-back for Heracles Almelo.
Noah Fadiga also has the opportunity to wear Senegal’s shirt one day. The defender has dual nationality and can also play for Belgium, but prefers not to start his international career yet. He has not yet had to make that choice. “That is quite sensitive,” said Fadiga. “As most people know, my father has always been a Senegal player. He is one of the best players Senegal has ever known. I find it difficult to talk about that. Whenever that question comes up, I have my answer ready. I am I’m happy to be Senegalese and I’m happy to be Belgian, hopefully one day I will have the opportunity to choose between two countries.”