Following his release by Sedan, Samba revealed that he "had lots of trials with clubs during that time, but none of them came off". He also said: "I had no club and I had to train by myself for a long period of time. I was 19 years old. I had to recover from the injury myself without a physio, no money. For six months I did not have a club and I was just training. I went to small teams like Rouen who did not even want to let me train with them." Eventually, Samba was signed by Berlin-based club Hertha BSC of the German Bundesliga after being scouted while on international duty at Congo.