Source: Northern_Echo
‘English football is for me’ says Ba
HE MAY hail from the suburbs of Paris, but Demba Ba is convinced that his second spell in English football is a real homecoming.[LNB] After a bittersweet five months with West Ham United, where Ba scored seven goals in 12 appearances but could not save the Hammers from relegation, the 26-year-old signed for Newcastle six years on from being released from Watford.[LNB] Despite that rejection, Ba went on to be one of Europe's most potent strikers, with goal-laden spells at Rouen, Mouscron and Hoffenheim. His record is a goal every two games, and he was courted by some of Europe's bigger clubs before signing for West Ham in January.[LNB] But Ba learned more about the game in that one year in England than he learned anywhere else.[LNB] I always knew English football was for me, said Ba, who was born in Sevres in 1985.[LNB] Since I was young I was only excited watching English football. It has always been better for me to watch two mid-table English teams playing, than the best sides in Italy or Spain. It was always exciting.[LNB] Germany helped me a lot as well at Hoffenheim. We played a quick tempo where we pressed hard.[LNB] The Senegalese striker arrived in the UK in 2004, had trials with Barnsley and Watford, and was rewarded with a year-long deal from then Hornets manager Ray Lewington. However, he did not make a first-team appearance in that time, and when Aidy Boothroyd took charge, Ba was out of the Vicarage Road door.[LNB] Ba said: I was young and looking for a club. I went to Watford for a couple of months and I learned a hell of a lot. I hoped to get a contract, but it didn't work out.[LNB] I was upset but I didn't want to give up. I had always wanted to play in English football. I went to Swansea and Barnsley looking for a club. I did my best I tried to make those clubs take me but it didn't work out and after a few months I had to go back to France.[LNB] Ba returned to France, where he went on to score 22 goals in 26 games for Rouen in the French National 2 division, but his time in England gave him a taste for more.[LNB] I never gave up, he explained.[LNB] It helps that I have had to work hard to get where I am.[LNB] I have had setbacks on the way. I am a firm believer that everything happens in life for a reason.[LNB] I am happy I have had all these experiences good and bad. It has worked out well for me to think I was turned down by Swansea and Barnsley and now I am playing for a club as big as Newcastle.[LNB] I never got to the stage when I thought I would never make it. I only took the positives. For every criticism I grew stronger. It helped build me up, not knock me down. I was 18 at Watford.[LNB] Those experiences at Watford, Swansea, and Barnsley helped me at West Ham.[LNB] After Rouen, Ba spent two years at Mouscron between 2006 and 2008, where he only amassed 12 appearances after breaking his leg. It was an operation to fix the fracture that caused Ba's troublesome knee complaint when the surgeon pinning the bone aggravated a muscle a problem that would go on to change the course of his career.[LNB] Nevertheless, Ba recovered to score seven goals in nine appearances, before making his first big move to Hoffenheim in 2008. A year after Ba's departure, Mouscron folded owing to financial issues Ba's 12 goals in 30 games helped Hoffenheim secure promotion to Bundesliga, scoring 14 in his first season in the top-flight.[LNB] It was a matter of time before other European clubs started to show interest, and the first to show their hand was Stoke City in January this year. But the surgeon's slip in 2006 was to rear its ugly head when Ba failed a medical, with Tony Pulis calling the injury a ticking time bomb.[LNB] However, West Ham took a chance on him and it was a gamble worth making as the striker managed to stay fit for the run-in.[LNB] Ba said of the Potters situation: These things happen for a reason. A week later I had signed for West Ham. Stoke was not a good club for me. I do not have any regrets about that.[LNB] He scored seven goals in ten league starts for the Hammers, but relegation was sealed with defeat to Wigan Athletic a week before the end of the season.[LNB] Ba scored twice in that game, only to see Wigan turn it around and score a lastminute winner to condemn Ba and the Hammers to Championship football.[LNB] Ba admits that he cannot put his finger on what went wrong at Upton Park.[LNB] He said: I am still puzzled by it. It was a good club, a good team, but it went down.[LNB] It is still difficult to accept and we had some good players. With a bit more luck and more efficiency in defensively and attack, we'd have been alright.[LNB] It is a big regret for me. I still feel sorry for the fans and the club, and the players.[LNB] West Ham is a big club but I have to look forward now.[LNB] When I arrived it was the end of January and the speculation about Avram Grant had stopped. We were focused on getting out of the bottom three, but it didn't happen.[LNB] West Ham's loss is Newcastle's gain, and the Magpies can look forward to Ba's speed and power which have made him one of Europe's most deadly strikers.[LNB] He will wear the number 19 shirt which he wore at Upton Park and for Hoffenheim. He is not interested in the Number 9 shirt, nor is he interested in taking the armband at any point in the future.[LNB] He said: I'm not here to be a captain or a leader. Other people here can do this job.[LNB] Players who have been here a long time. I am not interested in being captain and there are many who should be captain before me.[LNB] I don't have targets. Top ten would be good. We would like to better what we did last season.[LNB]
