Strong in the NBA floors, Pascal Siakam also knows how to use his feet, even with a basketball. The Toronto player is a soccer fan and often demonstrates it.
You only have to see some of his warm-up videos to understand that Pascal Siakam is a soccer fan. The Cameroonian often juggles with the orange ball in the various floors of the NBA. And of course, the World Cup 2022 is for him a great opportunity to plant himself in front of his screen. He did not miss the final between Argentina and France. The basketball player considers the World Cup final as “the biggest event in the world for soccer fans”.
But where does Pascal Siakam’s love for soccer come from? I love it, really. I grew up playing soccer. A soccer ball is the first thing you get when you are a kid. Even if you don’t have one, you find it somewhere in the street to play with. We played every day. There was no “what if we went to play basketball,” that wasn’t even an option. The first thing we did was go outside and play soccer. That’s all we were doing,” the Raptors player let loose to the press.
Moreover, the juggling skills of Pascal Siakam impressed his teammate Thaddeus Young. The latter did not hesitate to appreciate Siakam’s prowess. “It’s pretty impressive. It takes a lot of coordination. Most of us Americans didn’t grow up doing that kind of thing,” he said.
But does that mean he has any regrets about a future career in soccer? Not sure, since Pascal Siakam won the NBA in 2019 and was all-star. “I think things worked out perfectly in basketball. But what if I had really gone into soccer? I don’t know. I think I can really accomplish anything I want, so…”. Like all Cameroonians, the basketball player must have enjoyed the victory of the Indomitable Lions against Brazil.
If he enjoyed this soccer World Cup, perhaps it would be a motivation for him to try to take Cameroon to the basketball one because at 28 years, Pascal Siakam has never worn the Cameroon jersey.
