Virgil van Dijk has been injured since October 17, after Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford came out wild and crushed his knee. Participation in the European Championship seems out of the question for the captain of Orange, but Van Dijk himself also has a victim on his list: Michael Ngoo.
Michael Ngoo is a 1.98 meter long striker from London, with parents from Nigeria and Cameroon. He played nine youth matches for England 10 years ago and was under contract with Liverpool from 2009 to 2014. However, a debut at Anfield never came for Ngoo. After rental periods to Hearts, Yeovil Town and Walsall, Ngoo was sold in the summer of 2014 to the Scottish mid-engine Kilmarnock.
On purpose?
After 6 games for Kilmarnock, things went wrong for Ngoo, when he came in 20 minutes before time during Celtic – Kilmarnock (2-0) on October 26, 2014. His direct opponent Van Dijk made a tackle on his ankle and Ngoo was no less than 2 years old out of circulation. “I told our physio immediately after the match that Van Dijk had tried to get me. Just before his tackle on my ankle, we had an altercation. Then he came right through me. I think it was intentional, ”Ngoo said in an interview at the time The Mail. The once talented striker saw his life collapse.
Broken inside
“It was not only physically, I was also mentally broken,” he says now. “Before I had my first surgery on my ankle, the specialist told me that if my rehab didn’t go according to plan, I would never play professional football again. I went through a really bad time in those years. I interacted with the wrong people and sometimes spent hours in the car with nowhere to go. I turned on the music and turned my mind to zero. When I was with other people I kept myself big I was devastated inside, but I didn’t want to show it. ”
Forgive now
Ngoo after 6 years: ,, Van Dijk apologized through John Guidetti, a friend of mine, who at the time was rented to Celtic. I couldn’t accept it then, but I can now. The damage done by Van Dijk is great, but I no longer harbor a grudge “, he says in an interview. Planet Football. “He destroyed my career and I was depressed for years, but I have always believed that things would be okay again. Since then I have mainly realized that every life can change completely within a second. It’s something I always try to explain to younger players. You think you are on your way to the top and that the fame is there for the taking, but that is not the case. Within a second everything can change. ”
Champion of Albania
From 2017, Ngoo managed to pick up his career again. He did that at KF Tirana in Albania, where he became top scorer and champion last season. “My body could no longer withstand the physical football in League One or League Two, so I decided to go to Albania. I slowly scrambled back to that and regained confidence in my body and play. I never went to a psychologist for my mental health problems, but I kept praying every day that things would one day be okay again. ”
Ngoo now plays for Enosis Neon Paralimni FC at the highest level in Greece. There he did not score in 10 games this season.
