Plymouth Argyle signed the wonderkid Michael Owen personally called – what happened? | OneFootball

The one-time wonderkid Cherno Samba and his bizarre move to Plymouth Argyle before a journeyman career.

To this day, the prospect of a wonder kid that is set to take the football world by storm and be next to enter into the pantheon of greats gets pulses raising and tongues wagging – and back in the early noughties, whispers got louder and louder about Cherno Samba.

Huge amounts of money are spent on football transfers in England and yet the most impressive recruitment models in the Premier League and the EFL remain those that are one step ahead and identifying talent before anybody else.

A better understanding and ability to construct a squad and the right profile of player has also been key but the fundamental of being a smartly run club is getting in ahead of anyone else to sign ‘the next best thing’.

Brentford and Brighton and Hove Albion have mastered the art of the ‘moneyball’-ification of English football for now but plenty clubs in the EFL are seeking to emulate that in the modern day.

20 years or so ago, the equivalent remained practice, though, as clubs scrambled to identify and develop that ‘next best thing’ – and there was a time when that player was thought to be Cherno Samba.

Championship Manager cult hero Cherno Samba

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Back in the late-1990s and the early-2000s, and before the dominance of Football Manager and continued evolution of the likes of Pro Evolution Soccer and the FIFA, now EAFC, series; video game Championship Manager was perhaps the most addictive game of all to many.

A precursor to Football Manager, finding ‘cheat codes’ with players that would dominate the game season after season brought about cult heroes of the game and one in particular was Cherno Samba.

In real life, as well as in the virtual world, Samba’s reputation was a strong and burgeoning one as he came through the academy at Millwall.

An England youth international from the U16s all the way up to the U20s from 2000 to 2005, Samba was prolific in schoolboy football and then in the youth team at Millwall.

Samba was the subject of interest from Premier League giants Arsenal, Leeds United, Manchester United and Liverpool – with the latter reportedly having a £2 million bid rejected by The Lions.

Samba even revealed that 2003 Ballon d’Or winner Michael Owen personally called him to try and get him to choose and sign for Liverpool – but Millwall kept hold of him before a surprising move to Spanish outfit Cadiz in 2004 to continue his development at the age of 18.

Cherno Samba’s underwhelming Plymouth stint

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After a tough time of it down in Andalusia, which involved loan stints with Malaga’s B team in the second-tier and at Ubeda, Samba returned to English football with a surprise move to Plymouth Argyle in the Championship.

Having spent time in the lower divisions of Spanish football without pulling up too many trees, a move to the second-tier of English football was certainly a step up – but an example as to just how highly-rated the Gambia-born striker had been during his days as a youngster.

Still only 21, Samba was still a player that Plymouth boss Ian Holloway believed he could polish up into a stellar addition – and a worthwhile cause on a free transfer.

Given the pressure and eyeballs that were on him as he made his long-awaited debut in professional league football in England, the one-time desire of all of England’s leading clubs made his debut against Coventry City in late-September and, remarkably, scored just eight minutes into it after being subbed on mid-way through the second half; earning Argyle a 1-0 victory in the midlands.

Unfortunately for Samba and for Plymouth, it was not to be a sign that the former England youth international would indeed take senior football by storm and it would in fact be his only goal in a Pilgrims shirt.

In fact, just a few months after that header, he found himself loaned down to League Two with Wrexham taking their own punt on him as they struggled in the fourth-tier but he failed to score in just three appearances for The Red Dragons.

The following season saw Samba fail to make a match day squad at Argyle before his departure at the end of his initial two-year contract at Home Park.

A journeyman end to Cherno Samba’s career

Cherno Samba departed Devon and took another move abroad as he signed for Finnish outfit Haka – but it was again short-lived at the back end of the 2008 Veikkausliiga campaign, earning just one start and failing to score as they finished in the middle of the 14-team table.

He returned to England in 2009 and had trials at Norwich City and Portsmouth but nothing came of that before finally getting a contract nearly 18 months after his last game in professional football.

Samba turned up in the Greek second-tier, joining Panetolikos in Agrinio but he left quite soon after having not made an appearance for them – but that didn’t prevent him from scoring his only goal for national team Gambia against Tunisia in the summer of that year.

More failed trials, this time at non-league clubs Forest Green Rovers and Alfreton Town, as well as Mansfield Town, made up the next year and a half or so before earning a contract at Norwegian second-tier outfit Tonsberg.

At Tonsberg, Samba did get game time and he did find the net for the second, third and fourth and final time in his professional career.

A bizarre, nomadic career from more or less start to finish perhaps undermined what had been an electric time in youth football that suggested Samba may have the world at his feet.

Instead, in June 2015, Samba announced his retirement from football having managed just 52 senior appearances – but one very famous one for Plymouth at the then Ricoh Arena.