Talk to any coach who knew him in Bondy, the town in the northern suburbs of Paris where Saliba started playing football as a kid, and they will tell you there was never any doubt he would make it. He was that good growing up. Nevertheless, the journey to where he is now – a rock at the back for France and Arsenal – has been long and not always easy. There have been setbacks, injuries, doubts, loans and difficult moments before this Gunner hit the top.
From Bondy to north London via St-Étienne, Nice and Marseille – from playing in the streets to starting a EURO semi-final for France against Spain last summer and being selected in UEFA’s Team of the Tournament – the story of William Saliba is one of dedication, hard work and, eventually, success. It is very much a modern football fairy tale, from the bottom all the way to the top.
“I just wanted to turn pro,” Saliba tells me at Arsenal’s London Colney training ground. “As a kid, I grew up watching [Thierry] Henry play. I watched videos rather than full matches because I didn’t have the channels for the Premier League. Arsenal were the team I liked the most. Sometimes I was lucky enough to watch them in the Champions League, but that’s when it all began. That’s when I developed a liking for the club.
“I remember that we went to Decathlon to buy the shirt, and I got Henry’s name on it, and I wore it a lot after that. You know, when you’re a kid, you wear it for everything. But, honestly, I never thought I’d play for Arsenal – it was so beyond me. I was just happy to have the shirt. But that’s how fate works out sometimes.”
Bondy is a working-class, multicultural suburb, a place where you look out for your family, friends and neighbours. Like many of the banlieues around the Paris periphery, it grew after the Second World War, populated with immigrants arriving from around the world, but Africa in particular. For children growing up there, sport is often an escape, and street football means everything. There are cages and pitches everywhere.
Games kick off as soon as school finishes and don’t stop until it gets too dark to see the ball. There are no referees, no age groups. You have to be tough and talented to survive, but it makes you strong and determined. Like Saliba, Kylian Mbappé and Randal Kolo Muani both grew up in Bondy, and the list of famous names to have honed their skills in the Parisian suburbs is like a who’s who of French football: Warren Zaïre-Emery, N’Golo Kanté, Patrice Evra, Nicolas Anelka and, of course, Thierry Henry.
“I don’t think anywhere in France can beat the quality in Paris and the Île-de-France region,” says Saliba. “A lot of talents emerge there every year, especially from Seine-Saint-Denis. I was lucky to grow up in a neighbourhood where there were small pitches nearby. We used to play all the time and that helped me express myself and get better, improving my skills and becoming a more mature footballer. You play high-level matches when you’re a kid from Île-de-France, and of course it helps you. The talent pool is amazing. There’s a lot of street football there. It helped us let off steam because there’s not much else to do there besides playing football when you’re a kid.
“Because of Kylian [Mbappé] and other players, scouts came to see us at the age of 12 or 13. Sometimes, there were six or seven coming to every Saturday match. I was quite excited when I saw them and I would say, ‘This is my only chance to get out of here.’”
