Adama Traore has confirmed that plans were in place for him to attend NFL tryouts as a teenager.
It was revealed by his teammate Romain Saiss that the Wolves winger was so quick when he urged to switch from soccer to American football.
Traore, 23, confirmed that there was interest and his trainer in Barcelona was keen for him to switch sports.
“Yes, that happened. When I was in Barcelona, my personal trainer at the time told me he had a friend from the USA. He said why couldn’t I go there and try the testing that they (NFL teams) do,” Traore told the Daily Mail. “I didn’t think about it. I thought it was funny. My dream was to be a football player. And it’s going well. It can be better - always. But it’s going well.”
Well, Adama, in the soccer world we are glad you stuck to soccer.
Traore has taken a while to get going in England but after his initial arrival at Aston Villa from Barcelona in 2015 to his move to Middelsbrough and now at Wolves, the powerful winger has really found his feet during the 2019-20 Premier League season.
He has finally added end product to his incredible pace and power and Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo always kept faith in Traore, even deploying him in a more defensive role this season.
His best position is out wide and he has four goals and four assists to his name so far this season, as he’s ripped apart Man City twice and his partnership with Raul Jimenez in the final third has added an extra dimension to the Wolves attack.
What would his best position have been in NFL? Running back or a small tight end, probably. His explosive pace is unreal and as we’ve seen with Christian Wade switching from rugby to the NFL, there has been some success swapping sports but obviously soccer is very different to the NFL.
If any player in the Premier League can make the crossover a success, it would be Traore.