In years to come it may seem particularly far-fetched that when Wilfred Ndidi took his early steps as a midfielder things did not quite go to plan. It was July 2015 and Ndidi, whose first six months at Genk had been spent making cameo appearances across the defence under Alex McLeish, had been repurposed by the newly arrived coach Peter Maes. A first midfield outing against OH Leuven had gone respectably; a far bigger test would come in the season’s second fixture, away at Belgium’s reigning champions, Gent, and a cocktail of pressure and inexperience took its toll on the then 18-year-old.
“I was so nervous that I couldn’t pass the ball properly,” Ndidi remembers. “I was new to the position and the coach wasn’t the kind who keeps calm, he screams a lot at every player. So I didn’t play well and he took me off at half-time. At half-time!”
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