Black Stars and RC Lens midfielder Salis Abdul Samed has opened up about how difficult life was for him and his family growing up as a child in Ghana.

He says that as a child he played football for fun and did not see it as a career but the death of his father made him serious about football.

According to the defensive midfielder, his father's demise meant that he had to take responsibility of his family very early in life.

Salis recounts how he landed at the famed JMG academy in neighbouring Ivory Coast from Madina and how his talent was refined before that journey to Clermont Foot in France.

“  When I entered the academy, I was 12-13 years old, I just saw people playing on TV, so for me it was to play football, not to progress and have a career. I dribbled a lot, I took the ball and I walked, I didn't defend... Coach Babytho helped me improve a lot in my game. One day, he showed me Busquets (Barça's Spanish international defensive midfielder). For me he was zero, I did not see what he was doing. He said to me "sit down and watch how he plays, two touches, he orients well". After training, he told me " two mandatory touches, you control you give".It started there. The first class had traveled to Belgium to try out. I was in the second. At 16, I understood that we had come here to work, to go to Europe, to become a pro and that's what I had to do to help my mother. I became more serious. When my father died, I had seen my mother, who was then pregnant, crying, I had to do something to succeed. I was very young, ten years old, nine years old... I stopped school around 11 years old, I wanted to work. First I hung out in the street, I played football, I slept with friends... Then I told myself no, I had to succeed to help my mother. There were academies in Ghana, like Feyenoord or Red Bull, which came to get young people from my neighborhood, Madina, in Accra. They gave them a little money, they were well dressed, in uniform, clean more than us. When JMG arrived, I wanted to go, my mother told me "then go". Now she is very happy, I bought her a little house. If she's fine, I'm fine. I give her everything she needs, my brothers too. I'm proud today, thank god, if I'm hungry, I know I can afford to eat.  »

The RC Lens midfielder made his Ghana debut at the 2022 FIFA World Cup featuring in all three matches played at the group stage alongside Thomas Partey.

The Ghanaian midfielder joined RC Lens from Clermont Foot in the summer after his excellent performance and has continued from where he left off at his former side.