Through The Ranks The story of Buomesca Tue Na Bangna, known simply as Mesca around Motspur Park, is a quite fascinating football tale which has seen the teenager travel from his home in Africa all the way to Fulham, via Portugal, even spending some time with tonight’s opponents and our local rivals Chelsea.
The 18-year-old’s form for the Development Squad since the turn of the year has been scintillating enough to convince Martin Jol to hand him a squad number (36) and call him up to travel with the matchday squad for our recent trip to Old Trafford.
Having come from humble beginnings, Mesca is not one to let success go to his head, instead seeing the opportunities recently handed to him as motivation to continue the work ethic which has already served him so well.
Buomesca Tue Na Bangna - Midfielder
I started playing football when I was a schoolboy in Guinea-Bissau.
I moved to Portugal in 2009 because my family was there and my little brother was playing for Sporting Lisbon, and I started playing for them too. I wasn’t there for long though because Chelsea offered me the chance to join them, so I moved to Chelsea and started playing for their Under-16s. I got injured against Arsenal and needed an operation on my knee, which ruled me out for one year and two months. After my knee was okay, everything was good and I started to play again, but I wasn’t playing for long because the Manager thought my knee wasn’t going to be strong enough to play at Reserve level. But then Fulham came in for me and I’m feeling good and doing well here. I’m very happy, but I know that I need to keep playing well.
Football is my life. When I play I’m very happy because I just love to play football. I want to improve - I want to be a better player. I’ve already improved from when I was in the Academy so I just want to keep improving so that I can get in the First Team. Even then, though, I know that I can’t relax - I have to continue doing the best I can do – that is my dream.
I travelled with the First Team squad to Manchester, which was a very good experience for me. I’m learning the difference between the First Team and the Reserves and the Youth Team. It’s a big difference and it’s good experience for me to travel with the First Team. The competition for the First Team is very hard, very intense. I can see now that I need to work even harder to get there.
When I found out I was getting a squad number I thought that was very good for me. They showed me my number and I’m really pleased to have that as a reward for playing well. I didn’t choose the number, but in the future I’d like the number seven or 17 as those are my favourite numbers.
I’d say my best abilities are my pace and skills when I’m running with the ball. I’m quite a good dribbler, but I need to work on my crosses. I also need to work hard on my left foot to improve my crossing now that I’m playing on that side of the pitch. I can play with both feet, though, because in the Youth Team I used to play as a right winger, but in the Reserves now they play me as a left winger, but I can do everything with both feet which is good for me.
My favourite Fulham players are Mousa Dembélé and Andy Johnson. Dembéléis a nice person because when you are a young player training with the First Team he will always say hello and try and give you confidence. He’ll do everything to try and help you play well in training. In football he has technique, he can dribble – he’s a fantastic player. In world football Lionel Messi is my favourite player, and also Cristiano Ronaldo who I like very much.
Read more:
http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2012/April/ThroughTheRanksNaBangna.aspx#ixzz1rjPnTZjY
