Football is made up of lots of stories, and the story of Malik Sellouki, Nice's last goalscorer at the Vélodrome, is one worth telling. One year after the last trip to Provence, it's impossible to ignore...

18 February 2021. 87 minutes into the game. Hope comes from the delightful left foot of a player who hasn't even turned pro. Sellouki receives the ball from Gouiri, and with his first touch, hits the target. "Honestly, if I lived it again, I'm not sure I'd score..." recalls the attacking midfielder. "I wasn't expecting to come on. It was my third time on the bench. I was under no pressure. I wasn't even expected to warm up... And then everything accelerated. They tell me to go and after 5 minutes, boom, Rony Lopes comes off, the coach sends me on. I didn't realise it, I didn't even have time to think or feel pressure.”

Perhaps it is this lack of time that allows him to come on as light as a bird. Or maybe it's the thought that crosses his mind as he takes his first steps: "You've come a long way, you don't have much to lose and maybe you'll never play in L1 again, so enjoy it!"

"OBVIOUSLY, THERE WAS SOMETHING DIFFERENT.."

Whatever the reason, Malik starts in L1 as if he had entered a 5-a-side game, where his technique and his left foot once wreaked havoc. He even finds himself in a direct duel with Jordan Amavi, whom he has already met in the "cage" of the 5 vs 5, or in the office of Christian Della Monica, his advisor, who was in his time the assistant of Guy Mengual at the head of the U19 Red and Black winners of the Gambardella Cup in 2012. Heading into the 77th minute, Nice are trailing their neighbours by two goals . The dice seemed to be cast, although the Aiglons had imposed themselves on the game after the break, with Amine Gouiri scoring early in the second half. After not even 10 minutes, Sellouki met a cross at the back post and beat Mandanda: "I would have liked to have been booed off the pitch for that goal, but unfortunately the stands were empty because of Covid," laughed Sellouki, "but it did get us back into the game. Afterwards, we could even have made it 3-3, but Amine hit the post at the very end of the match. It's a pity, it would have been nice..."

Indeed, the late surge did not lead to anything. At least not for the team, but for the Sellouki clan, it meant a lot. "I'm not going to tell you that everything changed for me after that goal," admits the player. "But obviously, there was something different. Especially when you think about everything that happened before and what is happening now.”

The before in question? A bumpy path, like many amateur players and a few at the highest level too. Beginnings in Saint-Sylvestre, a period in Cavigal, in sports-study in AS Cannes, in U17 and U19 in Monaco, then again in Cannes, in the squad for N3, and sometimes in the reserves who play in the regional leagues. In the summer of 2020, Sellouki, a sports student, was asking himself questions. "I still believed a little in a pro career, but I was realistic," he says today. "I wanted to go as far as possible, but it seemed hard."

"IF YOU CONTINUE LIKE THIS, THANK YOU AND GOODBYE”

With opportunities few and far between, it was the Gym who took a chance on him, where Manu Pires gave him his trust after a successful trial: "It was my last chance, otherwise I would have had to think of something else." During the first half of the 2020-21 season, the winger put in a series of good performances with the Nice reserves, despite the early interruption of the league due to the pandemic, and even played 45 minutes with the pros during a friendly against Monaco.

“I thought it was good, but it wasn't enough for Manu Pires," he says. "Just before the winter break, he put the pressure on me: 'You don't look like an outsider. If you continue like this, at the end of the season, it's thanks and goodbye.'" Clear and precise. I had to do more." "I remember this discussion very well," added the director of Nice's training centre. “You always have to ask yourself where you place your demands. When a boy is satisfied with being the top scorer in the reserves, that's not enough. The players must always aspire to more and our objective is to see them become professionals. We must never forget that."

This frank discussion gave the attacking midfielder the push he needed. After his return from holiday, he did not leave the first team squad, and appeared in three other L1 matches, against Metz, Dijon and Strasbourg.

AIMING FOR THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Those six months at the top change everything. At the end of the season, the boy from Nice-north signed for Maribor, signing his first professional contract with Slovenia's biggest club.

Eight months on, he has made 14 appearances for the current league leaders, who are in the running for the Champions League play-offs, and has scored one goal with his silky left foot.

"He wasn't predestined for this," says Manu Pires. "But he came back and gained credit over time, with his team-mates at the academy, the academy staff, then the pro staff and finally the players in the pro squad. All this thanks to his exceptional mentality, his investment and his humility. There was a lot of work to be done for him to acquire the qualities required for a top level player. But he is still young in the pro world and therefore has a lot of room for improvement." "Yes, I hope it's just the beginning," says Sellouki. "I signed as a professional, which is great, but now I have to make sure of it. I am well placed to know that everything goes very quickly. Two years ago I didn't have a club, now we're fighting for a title and I can find myself playing in a European Cup... It's not nothing, many would like to be in my place. If it wasn't for the Gym, I know that it wouldn't have happened.”

Just like at the Velodrome a year ago, when he was just an amateur in the big league, Sellouki ends the discussion with serenity. "OGC Nice is the club where I always wanted to play, the club of the city where I was born, of the city of my parents, of my heart. I thank the club for offering me this opportunity. It was a pride to play here in L1."

C.Djivas