Why Every Player Matters
For me the impact of having just one person that really believes in you as a child and showing you that in their actions and care is HUGE!
As a child we all have big dreams wishing one day for these dreams to come true. As parents we also dream for our children, sometimes the dream is not mirrored of the Child’s dream but nevertheless we all dream and hope for our child/children to be successful.
My love affair with the beautiful game was ignited by my mother. As a young energetic 5 year old or more accurately described hyperactive boy my mum wanted to find something for me to do to burn my energy as trips to the park were not doing the trick. She took me over to the Tottenham stadium which was on my doorstep for a community session, I do not remember the first session but she tells me I absolutely loved it and couldn’t wait to go back the following week.
After a couple of weeks you would not see me anywhere without my ball, unfortunately for my mum this also meant in the house where I would be constantly kicking a ball breaking hanging lights, vases, picture frames you name it. So what did my mum do about that? She searched for an additional sessions for me to join. There was no google back then and the best bet was word of mouth and if not diving into the yellow pages. She did find me a second session to join on the adjacent astro turf Northumberland Park School, now known as Dukes academy and the astro turf is still present till this day.
As the years started to pass I would spend every free hour I had at the astroturf with my ball. Playing with whoever was available to have a kick around with over there at that time, with the view of the Tottenham stadium in the backdrop dreaming to one day play there.
I was actually fortunate enough to play there in the premier league years later, although I dreamed of playing for Tottenham it was still a dream come true to play at the stadium for Westbrom against Spurs. That was a surreal moment to see that stadium everyday of my life growing up to then step out on that pitch at the highest level.
I ended up joining a team at the astro called G Star, the coach who ran the team was a very caring man named Hopeton. He was the first person that made me believe I could live my dream. He had two son’s of his own that also played for G Star, Alvin and Troy but I can honestly say looking back he treated me the same way as he did his own children. So much so that when I was scouted by Norwich City he was actually the person who drove me all the way to Norwich to play a game. I had no clue about football teams or where Norwich was at this time, the only team I knew was Tottenham hotspurs as I would see the stadium every day stepping out my front door, plus my dad was a spurs fan. I kid you not I didn’t even know football was played on grass, I had only ever played on the sandy astro turf or the street, so going up to Norwich I remember going in my astro turf trainers playing on grass slipping everywhere. I must have done really well though as I ended up signing there and going back to watch my first ever football game at Carrow Road Stadium Norwich City Vs Bury FC, and yes it was Hopeton that took me. To give you some clarity, from my home at the time to the Norwich city training ground the journey was 104miles. A 208mile round trip!
Without Hopeton believing that Every Player Matters the chances are I would not have gone on to have a career as a professional player. Singing for Norwich after about 3/4months the gentleman in charge there at the time, Roy Massey ended up leaving due to Norwich shutting down part of the academy, leading to him joining Arsenal and resulting in him taking me with him to sign for Arsenal.
Hopeton did not have to push me, nurture my potential, definitely did not have to drive me all the way to Norwich but he believed in me and gave me a lot of belief in myself. He helped give me an opportunity to learn, develop, join the academy system and chase my dream. It may not be the case for every young person but I know for myself all I needed was a platform to show what I could do and someone who cared about me in my corner.
If you ask any professional player about their journey I guarantee there was someone or a couple people along the line that believed and took a chance on them.
I could never thank Hopeton enough for all he done for me, football mattered to me and I mattered to him. A truly great man.
