A Premier League legend is currently transforming a small club on the north coast of France, and anyone searching for football’s next Moneyball success story could do much worse.
Demba Ba’s skill in front of goal throughout his time at West Ham, Newcastle United, and Chelsea helped him build a formidable reputation. However, his business sense is causing a stir at USL Dunkerque, one of the smaller teams in France’s fiercely competitive Ligue 2.
Nearly two years have passed when Ba and Turkish shipping tycoon Robert Yuksel Yildirim bought the club.
After becoming the club’s minority owner and taking over as head of football operations, Ba changed the club’s policy to emphasize young development and fired a well-liked manager.
His unique selling point is brain training. By allocating valuable club finances to infrastructure that supports players’ mental health, Ba demonstrates his strong belief in the potential of psychology and cognitive development.
It is a template refined over four years of painstaking research, first through frequent travels to Moscow to study under mentor Ralf Rangnick, and then across the world to visit forward-thinking clubs, selecting the best elements from each and creating original work to monitor current developments in the game.
“A unique perspective on where football is going in the next few years” is what he claims it given him.
You can understand why Ba is feeling positive when The i Paper catches up with him if you combine that creative approach with a shrewd hiring philosophy. They have made excellent use of the lending market over the past 12 months.
He does not wish to cast too much doubt on it, but thus far, his strategy appears to be effective.
Despite having the 14th largest budget in the 18-team league, they managed to upset Caen on Monday night to climb back up to fourth place and continue their improbable promotion bid.
After defeating Champions League team Lille in an exciting penalty shootout last week, they advanced to the French Cup’s round of eight.
Considering that the most of the previous season was spent fighting relegation, this is an impressive turnaround.
For a team with attendances of 3,500, promotion to the league of Paris Saint-Germain and company seems unattainable.
“I’m really pleased with the way things are going,” Ba tells The i Paper.
“This season, we’re succeeding easily. It involves having a plan—a good plan—and assigning the appropriate personnel to carry it out.
When others refused to support Ba, he stood by himself.
Brexit bureaucracy denied him a position as Rangnick’s adviser while he was on loan at Manchester United, and although there was a chance at Marseille, English clubs were mainly uninterested.
In hindsight, it could have been advantageous for him to be able to try his methods in a club where they have not encountered opposition.
“I did a lot of research on football. He says, “I had the conviction to put all of that in place after looking at management, football trends, and the direction the game is taking.”
“I’ve always maintained that building a successful football club doesn’t require the largest expenditure. It all comes down to having the appropriate individuals to help you put your idea and vision together. I concentrated on that for myself.
“You might have the largest budget and have no idea what you’re doing, but capital will always get you farther. You will still be able to take action since you may be able to acquire a superior player if you enter the market with £10 million rather than £1 million.
“The vision, preparation, and enlisting the appropriate people are ultimately where it all begins. This is what I believe I do best, and this is what has happened with Dunkerque.
He just finished one of the “greatest nights in Dunkerque’s history,” a cup victory over Lille that was attained by adhering to a possession-based style of play that calls for courage from the team’s younger players.
Ba lauds his instructor Luis Castro profusely and lists the ages of people who made it happen. The majority are younger than 21. One had just signed a loan agreement from Saudi Arabia the day before, while the other was participating in his first professional match.
He calls it “amazing, amazing, they showed so much mental strength.” In a promotion challenge where Ba maintains that the pressure is off, it provides them new momentum.
The budget of the teams above us is four times that of ours. Our whole budget is likely covered by the salaries of the captains of those four teams. We are fighting against that.
However, we have a great coaching staff, a strong approach, and good quality and chemistry. We are engaged in combat. We’re just playing and enjoying our games and philosophy; we’re not required to go up.
Right now, we’re just enjoying ourselves and our work while attempting to win as many games as possible. We are not under any pressure.
What comes next? Ba hopes to establish more intimate ties with English teams, possibly even forming unofficial alliances with clubs that are open to it.
So far, it has been challenging. Dunkerque’s budget prevents them from offering significant financial incentives, and the multi-club model that more and more European powerhouses have chosen closes some possibilities for even well-connected former players.
He claims that he has made an effort to establish those connections in England.
It’s not as simple as I would have imagined because, in my opinion, football demands a great deal of both technical and cognitive skills.
“Those players are usually with major teams or have extremely high value, and those teams are currently having trouble loaning a player to Dunkerque.”
Even if we’re performing well in the second division, we’re not like FC Metz, Bordeaux, or Lorient, which were once in the first division and have well-known brands and substantial financial resources.
However, I’m making an effort. We had Billy Koumetio on loan from Liverpool last season, and we currently have [Abdoullah] Ba from Sunderland.
“We’re working to create connections and open doors, but so far, we’ve just been able to loan those players—we haven’t been able to sign them yet. Let’s observe what occurs.
However, Ba is preparing to speak with the management of his old team, Newcastle, about how they may collaborate in the future. He may be trying to use his familiarity with the Magpies to create a win-win situation for players who fit the bill.
Maybe he’s trying to shove a door open. Newcastle is now restructuring its loan department, adding personnel and expertise to a group that is seen as an essential component in the player development process.
The Magpies are aggressively searching for clubs to collaborate with as they intensify their effort to recruit project players under the leadership of Paul Mitchell. Could they trust Ba and his team with some of those unpolished diamonds?
“I have plans for Newcastle,” he states.
It’s a club that matters to me; it had a part in my career. I plan to travel up north in the next weeks and months to see what we can do together.
“I definitely have Newcastle on my list of places to visit.”
Ba is thrilled with the achievements his old team has had after the club was taken over in 2021. He saves special recognition for Rangnick’s 2020 selection of Eddie Howe as a manager for Spartak Moscow.
“I appreciate Eddie’s composure on the sidelines,” Ba admits.
Stress is the last thing a football player needs. He doesn’t become upset or swayed by a player’s missed opportunity or a last-minute score from the other team. It requires a great deal of stability.
“It’s fantastic how he organizes the team and the project. He is undoubtedly a long-term player, and if they stay, I believe he will bring that to Newcastle.
However, Sunderland, Newcastle’s opponents, may have done him the most favor in Dunkerque’s bid for promotion. Abdoullah Ba, who was a consistent starter for the Black Cats the previous season but is currently out of favor, was acquired on loan, which was a huge win for the team.
He claims, “I’ve been following him as a player for a long time.”
“His name is Ba, and I grew up around Le Havre, so I’ve always kept up with that team a little bit.” I thought he was a tremendously good player when I first saw him when I was 17 or 18.
“I saw he wasn’t playing much this season after he performed well for Le Havre and traveled to England. However, I am familiar with the player, therefore all he needs to do to perform is a small mental command because I am aware of his skill level.
The qualities he possesses are astounding. His speed, mentality, and ball-handling agility are all impressive. You have a terrific career if you train hard and have all these qualities, unless there is a problem—I would argue that it’s mental, emotional, or something else entirely.
He is superior than the French second division, which is why I chose to bring him on board. To get him back on track, we’re going to concentrate on his emotional and mental health.
He acknowledges that there is “nearly no chance” that the agreement will be finalized. The goal is to get his career back on track and have him return to Wearside a happier player and more valuable asset, therefore Sunderland is paying a sizable portion of his salary to arrange the agreement.
“After what happened to him in the last couple of months, he got into a mood where he just wants to enjoy football,” Ba explains. “We just want to put him back on track so he can find his rhythm back, his confidence, and to start enjoying it a bit.”
“We’ll make an effort to remind him of that, and then hopefully he can return to Sunderland and either compete or be sold to continue his career.”
It is a player-first approach that seems to be working.
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