By Fırmaın Erıc Mbadınga
Papa Seck, once enrolled as a young footballer at the French football club Olympique Marseille academy, never thought he would rub shoulders with some of the best players of the game.
He was ambitious on turning pro, but just like in a football match, a player's career is never fully in their hands.
Confinement in France during the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to call time on his amateur career. But it also gave rise to a new interest in making videos for TikTok - a switch that has brought him global fame and led to invitations as a guest to some of football’s most prestigious ceremonies.
“I used to play football. I was born in Marseille and grew up there. From the age of four to 15 I was at the OM (Olympique Marseille) club, then I changed clubs when I was 20. Then the COVID period set in and stopped everything," Pape Seck told TRT Afrika.
That was when his sense of humour came to life and found its way to the video-sharing where global audiences under confinement hankered for diverse content.
His videos led the wave of young black content creators who appealed to French-speaking audiences during the pandemic. His French-Senegalese roots helped in no small measure in increasing the viewership count.
“Initially my first videos didn't get many views and I wasn't well known. Then during COVID-19 I started making humorous videos, and things started to take off in France, Senegal, Mali, Belgium, and Africa in general," said Pape who has racked up 100 million views on his various accounts.
A man who describes himself as shy and admits to being a little surprised by his TikTok fame said his "return" to the world of football came during the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) football tournament in 2021 in Cameroon.
His videos at the tournament of interactions with some of the participating players, as well as rare access to dressing rooms, drew many football fans to his TikTok account.
"All of my videos at the Afcon have been a huge success, with some reaching three million views in a very short space of time," he said.
His successes at the tournament in terms of TikTok viewership led to an official invitation to attend the CAF Awards 2023 in the Moroccan city of Marrakech.
He watched live as Nigerian players Victor Osimhen and Asisat Oshoala were crowned the best African players of 2023 in the respective female and male categories.
Pape has also attended the last two Ballon d'Or ceremonies, fulfilling a promise he made to his father who is a huge football fan.
“One of the photos I'm most proud of is the one with my father next to the Golden Ball. It's true that the picture I posted is the one where I'm alone, but really that moment shared with my father is the most important. I'm always with my father.
“Frankly, I didn't succeed in football as a player, but I always want to please him,” he told TRT Afrika.
Pape attributes his success on TikTok to the quality and content of his videos. His trademark is short videos, sometimes with commentary, in which he can be seen alongside football starts like Erling Haaland, Sébastien Haller, Sadio Mané, Jude Bellingham, and Vinícius Júnior.
For someone taught himself shooting and editing videos at the age of 12, Pape rise to fame is nothing short of remarkable.
He is now undertaking training in an audiovisual course at the Centre d'Études des Sciences et Techniques de l'information at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal.
"You must always believe in your dreams, believe in yourself and never give up” he told TRT Afrika.
