After a series of unspectacular loan spells away from AS Roma, Umar Sadiq found his feet in Serbia with FK Partizan after joining on loan in July 2019.
His impressive performances persuaded the Belgrade club to activate the option to buy him outrightly and the goals continued to flow.
Sadiq’s talents have always been obvious, he only needed the right environment and self-belief to do exploits.
In the past summer transfer window, some of Europe’s top clubs were believed to be monitoring the Nigerian. Man United, Napoli, Monaco, and Lille were all linked to Sadiq.
The 23-year-old ended up joining UD Almeria in the Spanish second division in October 2020 to the surprise of many.
“Our main target is to return to La Liga and that was what convinced me to sign for them. Everyone at the club wants to go to the top league.” Sadiq clarified his decision to join Almeria.
Three months into the season, the towering striker has hit the ground running and he is starting to justify his decision to move to Spain.
His goals are pushing Almeria towards their aim of achieving promotion to La Liga.
He netted a first-half hat-trick on Sunday (Jan 3) against SD Ponferradina to hand Almeria a 3-1 home win.
Those strikes took his tally to 9 goals in 18 games. Sadiq is not just a traditional center-forward. He is an all-rounder as evidenced by his 3 assists and countless penalties won this season to go with.
With 20 rounds of matches played, Almeria are comfortably placed third on the table with 41 points, 1 off the first position, and are one of the favorites to secure promotion to the top tier.
Sadiq is primed to play a crucial for Almeria this season and beyond. And if the Rojiblancos are to play in the Spanish top-flight for the first time since 2014-15, they will have to hope their Nigerian talisman keeps bringing the goods. The early signs are promising.
