Stoke City star Salif Diao tells Michael Baggaley why the club's new coaching initiative in Africa is so dear to his heart.

HE LEFT his family at 13, travelled 400 miles for a trial, and then had to wait a week to get a kick – so Salif Diao knows better than most that becoming a footballer is not easy.

The 32-year-old midfielder has lent his support to Stoke City's decision to send three of their community staff to Senegal, to help train aspiring coaches.

The Stoke trio – Warren Leat, Kenny Barton and Dean Latham – have been in Diao's home country this week continuing the work the Stoke midfielder started when he set up an academy in his hometown of Kedougou.

Diao hopes his academy, and the Stoke project, will help Senegalese youngsters break into the game without having to making the same sacrifices he had to.

He said: "I moved when I was 13, because there were no football academies where I lived, but I'd heard Monaco were setting one up in Dakar.

"It was 400 miles, so, although my father gave me the bus fare, he thought I was joking when I said I was going.

"I stayed with one of my old teachers and their family, but they lived on the outskirts of Dakar, so it was still an hour's bus ride to the stadium.

"I sat at the trials every morning for a week, from 7am to 3pm, with no lunch, but they were only calling the kids who had been recommended.

"I was just a little boy who had come from nowhere. I didn't even have any shoes, so I had to make friends so I could borrow a pair. I only had flip flops and I couldn't play in those.

"Eventually, a scout heard me talking to one of the other boys. He couldn't believe I'd come so far for the trial. He asked me if I was any good and, when I said I was, he told me to come back tomorrow and prove it.

"I was then spotted by the Senegal under-15s coach, so I played for them, then the under-17s, and then signed for Monaco."

Diao went on to play for five years in France with Monaco and Sedan, before he was signed by Liverpool after playing for Senegal in the 2002 World Cup.

However, life was not all plain sailing when he joined Monaco. The club first sent him to a development camp in the Vosges mountains in north-east France.

He said: "I never knew what cold was until I went there.

"I'd never seen snow. In fact, the guy who was driving me there stopped on the way so I could touch some of it.

"Training there was like being put into a fridge.

"For my first week there, I went training with the others every morning, then got sent back to the changing rooms five minutes later because I was frozen.

"I'd wait there for 90 minutes until the others came back, took my boots off and put me in the hot shower with my clothes on.

"People ask if I'm cold at the Britannia, having come from Monaco, but training in Vosges prepared me for anything."

Diao has filmed an introduction to a DVD that the Stoke coaches have taken to Senegal to explain their community work.

The trip is part of the Premier Skills initiative, the Premier League's overseas project to train coaches, so they can pass on their skills to their own communities.

Diao said: "Senegal is a poor country, but we are lucky compared to some African countries.

"There's a good set up for schools, but there are problems, such as teachers not getting paid and so going on strike.

"Also, when the first rains come at the end of May, children have to leave school to work in the fields for their families.

"Children as young as six are working in agriculture, but that has to come before education for the parents, because the most important thing is how they are going to feed their family."

Diao's endorsement of the Stoke trip carries some weight, because he and his Senegal and Stoke team-mates Abdoulaye Faye and Amdy Faye are heroes in their home country.

He said: "It is like Rooney or Ronaldo would be in their home towns. The Senegal players couldn't walk down the street after the 2002 World Cup. Everyone would crowd round."

The presence of three Senegal players in the Stoke squad has ensured City have a fast-growing fan-base among the West Africa nation's 12.7 million inhabitants.

Diao said: "I think Stoke City is now the most popular team in Senegal.

"You see every kind of shirt there, but it is usually teams like Manchester United or Juventus.

"It does seem a bit strange to see shirts for all these massive clubs, then people wearing a lot of Stoke tops as well.

"But Stoke's support there is getting stronger and stronger.

"Football is massive in Africa and they have always been proud of their football stars.

"When we have a good game for Stoke, or Stoke do well, the people in Senegal feel they are part of something."

As well as setting up a football academy, Diao is president of Caap Africa, a charity which pays for disabled children in West Africa to have treatment.

Despite the sacrifices he made to forge a career, Diao considers himself fortunate.

He is delighted his club is also helping his countrymen with this week's coaching initiative.

He said: "It shows the work Stoke put in and just how wide their commitment is.

"Also, perhaps it shows they are happy with what Senegalese players have done at Stoke."

Diao says he and the two Fayes are hugely proud whenever they see the Senegal flag which Stoke supporters take to home and away games.

He said: "That is really fantastic and gives us a massive lift.

"When we see the flag up there, we remember we are playing for our country as well as Stoke."