Born on this day is current Sunderland midfielder Abdoullah Ba. The Frenchman has made 32 appearances so far, since joining us on the 31st of August 2022.
Born in Saint-Aubin-Les-Elbeuf, the 20-year-old came through the youth systems of both CA Pitres and Le Havre, the latter offering him his first professional contract in the summer of 2020.
Ba made his professional debut for Le Havre on the 4th of May 2021, coming on as a substitute against Toulouse in Ligue 2.
Ba signed for Sunderland permanently on the last day of August in 2022, signing a five-year deal with the lads.
After putting pen to paper, Ba told Sunderland: “I’m very happy to be here because this is a big cub and one that has a lot of ambition, so I want to make a lot of progress and make sure we keep building on our history. I’m a midfielder, but I can play a lot of positions and I can play with both feet-I like to have the ballot make passes and I also like to attack. I’m looking forward to meeting my new teammates and getting started with Sunderland AFC.”
Since signing for us, he has had many impressive showings, most notably scoring against newly relegated side Norwich City, on the 12th of March 2023, helping us to grab three points against the Canaries.
Following on from the game, Tony Mowbray described Ba as a, “Really talented player,” going on to say that, “I did expect him to score, but we were having a laugh there because I said he’d stick it in the top corner.”
Contrary to this praise, Mowbray also gave a word of constructive criticism to Ba, telling the media that the French midfielder “needs to learn to move the ball and run with it sometimes, because he always wants to dribble.”
As well as impressing on club level, Ba has also earned caps in French national team’s youth system, making a total of 17 appearances in U16, U17 and U19 level.
After making a promising start on Wearside, the future looks bright for Abdoullah, who will only hope he can build on what he’s done so far in Sunderland.
