Soro aims to be Celtic success for late father after sealing big move
● Far-travelled young midfielder says family tragedy has forced him to grow up quickly
ST JOHNSTONE
V CELTIC
The ability to make Celtic his football home moved Ismaila Soro to claim yesterday it was “like being in paradise”. Yet, this proudest step in what has been a punishing professional journey for the 21-year-old Ivorian midfielder could not dull the pain of being unable to share the moment with his late father, Adama.
Soro is understandably still coming to terms with the sudden death of the 70-year-old in August. As a young man who had dedicated his entire existence to carving out a football career – leaving school at 16, despite his father’s disapproval, to move to Moldova, before a spell in Belarus gave way to a move to Israel – he dealt with the bereavement in the only way he knew how: by playing for his team Bnei Yehuda in a huge game without letting his club know what he was going through.
In one respect, he did precisely this to honour a father who had come to admire life choices he had initially vehemently opposed. Life choices which, in taking him to three countries before he had even left his teenage years, appear unimaginably demanding.
“My father passed away a couple of days before my club played Malmo in a Europa League qualifier. My sister Yessonguina phoned me and said: ‘dad is dead’. I was destroyed,” recalled Soro. “But I decided
“I have worked hard to get to Celtic, and it almost feels incredible tobehere.thisiswhyi left school at 16”
ISMAILA SORO
not to tell the club until after the game. I wanted to play. I played at maybe 90 per cent of what I could do, but I didn’t want to disrupt anyone with my news. I had to grin and bear it to get through the game. My father has been a big motivation for me. I look up to him in everything I do. I want to win the league and be successful at Celtic for him, 100 per cent.
“I am only 21, but when you suffer that kind of trauma, you are bound to grow up quicker. I think it’s fair to say I am more mature than a lot of people