At the age of 12, Francis Uzoho’s dream of becoming a footballer seemed to have come crashing down. He had his heart set on making it as a centre-forward, perhaps becoming a goalscoring hero for his country if things went especially well, but then came the kind of feedback every youngster dreads. He was too slow to succeed up front, his coach told him, before putting forward a possible solution: Uzoho’s gangling frame and long arms might have made for an ungainly striker, but why not try and put them to good use in goal?
To many, it would have been an insurmountable slight. Goalkeeping is generally scorned in Nigerian grassroots football; weaker players and outfield substitutes are routinely asked to fill in between the posts, with few youngsters setting out in the hope of making the position theirs. Yet Uzoho warmed to his task and, seven years on, has a shot at the Super Eagles’ No 1 jersey in his first World Cup – months after becoming the youngest foreign goalkeeper to play in La Liga.
There was no sulking on Uzoho’s part after his redeployment. Instead he took the change in his stride, learning the ropes with dedication and establishing himself as first choice at the small academy where he had begun. By the following year he had done enough to earn a move to the Aspire Academy in Qatar, selected from a pool of 50 players having shone in a tournament sponsored by Coca-Cola.