Not sure if it is official as I haven't seen any link to a source yet, but it's commonly claimed here that Sedjati's sudden appearence as a world beating 800m guy can be explained through him being a failed soccer player.
I often get ridiculed for claiming that there are likely dozens or hundreds of professional soccer players in the world who could be world class 800m runners if they had pursued athletics instead of soccer when they were kids.
I make this argument in relation to the relative success of Kenya at the 800m compared to European or South American countries. There are three Kenyan pro soccer players, all playing in Europe. Kenya does not have a pro soccer league. There are at least 1,000 professional soccer players in England alone.
Thoughtleader ridicules the idea that some of these soccer players in England have sub 1:45 talent (if trained from a young age).
This is despite George Mills only becoming European 5000m silver medalist and a double Olympian because he wasn't quite good enough to win a contract as a pro soccer player (unlike his brother). Or Steve Cram AND Steve Ovett both turning down soccer careers to pursue athletics (the money in soccer back then was miniscule to today).
Now an Algerian who makes 1:41.5 look easy was apparently a soccer player right up to the end of his teens. Presumably, he only turned to athletics because he couldn't make a living from soccer. There are far fewer pro teams in Algeria, with obviously far less money than the European or South American leagues.
I remember at least one poster here explicitly stating that anybody with world class 800m talent would be identified as a teen and would go straight into athletics rather than any other sport. Lol. Yet Sedjati clearly has sub 1:41 talent and wasn't spotted or persuaded to switch until he was 19 or 20?