Source: Northern_Echo
Barefoot early years key for Tiote
TO most 15-year-olds growing up in the Academy of a leading English football club, life could hardly be more luxurious.[LNB] The facilities are fantastic, the strips are well fitting, education is provided for free.[LNB] Unlike a decade or so ago, even the days of cleaning out the dressing room are long gone.[LNB] Throughout much of the rest of the world, though, a teenager's existence could hardly be more different.[LNB] Today, Cheik Tiote is one of the leading players in the Premier League.[LNB] Nine years ago, when he was still to leave his native Ivory Coast, the Newcastle midfielder could hardly have dreamed of the luxuries that teenagers in his club's Academy now take for granted.[LNB] At many leading clubs, players as young as 14 and 15 are not even required to clean their own boots. At the same age, Tiote did not even have a pair of boots to clean.[LNB] Growing up in Ivory Coast was difficult, said the personable 24-year-old, who has made quite an impression since joining Newcastle in a £2.5m move from Dutch side FC Twente this summer. I started playing football when I was about ten, but that was only for a very local team.[LNB] It was obviously very different to England, and there were a lot of basic materials lacking. Now we have everything, then we did not have very much at all. The pitches were very basic, here we have everything we need. We are well fed and looked after.[LNB] When I started playing, we did not even have football boots. I played for nearly five years barefoot. I rarely saw a pair of football boots, and I was 15 before I got my first pair.[LNB] Now I have about ten pairs.[LNB] In fact, I have so many that I send some of them back to my brother at home.[LNB] I also send strips over, shirts and things. I would have really liked that help when I was growing up and it is nice to be able to do that for children over there.[LNB] Born in Yamoussoukoro, part of the Ivorian central belt, Tiote began his career playing for a number of youth sides in the nation's capital, Abidjan.[LNB] Like a number of African players now plying their trade in the Premier League, he was spotted by one of the many scouting teams that were regularly dispatched from France, Belgium and Holland in the late 1990s and early 2000s.[LNB] He joined Belgian side Anderlecht at the age of 18, spent a season on loan at Dutch side Roda and moved to Twente in 2008.[LNB] While at Twente, he was part of the side that won the Eredivise title under former Middlesbrough and England boss Steve McClaren.[LNB] His performances in Holland brought him to the attention of Newcastle's scouting staff, and subsequently former boss Chris Hughton, but it is his formative days in Abidjan that he identifies as the key passage in his journey to the riches and profile of the Premier League.[LNB] My childhood made me into who I am today, he said.[LNB] I have always believed in myself, and as soon as I started playing football, I knew it could be my path to success.[LNB] I knew I would have to make some big decisions in my life like leaving my home, but I was happy to do that if it meant me succeeding in my job.[LNB] I also think I am the player I am today because of what happened in my past. It was different to what happens here (England), but for example I think playing barefoot helped me a lot.[LNB] It teaches you how to control the ball and pass from a very early age.[LNB] If you are playing in boots, sometimes you can get away with your mistakes.[LNB] When you are playing with just your feet, you cannot do that. You have to learn technique.[LNB] That technique has seen Tiote emerge as one of the leading central midfielders in the league this season, with his boundless energy and tough tackling masking a surprisingly adept ability level when the ball is at his feet.[LNB] When I was young, I started out as a number ten, he said.[LNB] That is how I played. But because I loved to tackle so much, I spent my early career going backwards in the team and now I like to think I play to the best of my talents. I am a player who likes to tackle, I like that side of the game.[LNB] That tackling has alerted a number of England's leading clubs, who are no doubt frustrated he was allowed to slip under the radar despite a string of summer recommendations from McClaren, but who are now understood to be considering a move in one of the next two transfer windows.[LNB] It is obviously really pleasing when people say that you are doing well and suggest good things might happen,[LNB] said Tiote.[LNB] But I am at Newcastle now and am very happy here. I want to do very well for this club because this club is the one that brought me over to England.[LNB]
