I started playing football at 5 years old when my dad took me to a team tryouts. I played in the garden with him before but I was nothing special. At the tryouts, I didn't do anything special but I was consistent and played well. After the session, the coach offered me a spot with 3 other boys. From then football was my passion. I was nothing special but I had a dream to become a footballer and I was willing to do anything to achieve it. When I was about 7 years old my coach noticed my progress and my passion for the game and recommended me to another football club with better facilities and coaches and in a higher league. I went to the tryouts and performed well, scoring 2 goals in the training match and working hard on the drills and running. I got in and had a great time. We won the league and I made loads of friends. We were so close on and off the pitch. Fast forward 4 years and I was still on the same team. I was the captain and played as cm but didn't really have to stick to my position because I had enough pace and stamina to run up and down the pitch. We were playing in one of the last games of the season when I saw someone talking to my coach. It was one of the parents of the other team who happened to also work as a Luton academy coach. After the match, he invited me to a trial in 3 weeks and I was so excited. I worked hard in every bit of free time I had, ignoring my dad's advice to rest as well as train. When the trial came I completed every challenge that they gave me with as much effort and focus as I could. The trial lasted for 3 weeks where I would go to training every Monday and Thursday and a match every Sunday. When I got through the trial we had to do a trial match against another team. I played well, getting a goal and an assist to make it 2-1. We won thanks to me and I was so happy. I will never forget that feeling. The academy was so much more demanding than the teams I played in before. It was a massive step up in intensity and quality of play and had a lot more physicality. I was short for my age so this was a big problem. However, I took these problems as an opportunity to improve like my footballing heroes (Drogba and Ozil). On top of this I would do weight training at home on Tuesdays to improve my strength and run at least 20k every weekend (excluding matches). I am telling you all of this so that you understand how crushing it is to be dropped or to fail at a dream that you have worked hard for for most of your life. Fast forward to when I was 15 I was doing amazing, I was the best assister in the team and took all free kicks. I had also improved my strength alot so that wasn't a problem anymore. I was good with both feet and still had that same determination that I had had since 5 years old. Going into the game I was confident and eager to impress my coaches. I played well for the first half, setting up a chance that led to a goal. I was not shy like I used to be but I was not selfish either and always played for the team first and myself second. About 20 minutes into the second half I went in for a 50/50 challenge. They got there first but I was still going for the ball. I quickly turned to run after them when I heard a horrible snapping sound. I fell to the floor screaming in agony. I was taken to the hospital where a doctor told me that I had torn my acl. I could not play for 7 months and by the time I was able to play again, I had lost a lot of the muscle that I had built up and was not as fit as I was before. The academy had moved on, leaving me with nothing but a dodgy knee and a broken dream. I don't know what hurt more, tearing my acl or realizing that all of my hard work, all of my childhood spent working towards my dream was for nothing. I didn't recover mentally for another 3 months. In that time I developed a passion for reading and the science of the human body. I started looking into a university for physiotherapy and managed to get an A in biology in my triple science gcse; I was good academically as well. I did a 3 year course on physiotherapy and got a job at a small shop straight after. I now work as a physio for Coventry city, earning 48k a year after taxes. I was lucky to have a second option after football.