Jamie Johnson – The Footballer.

It was the only way he had ever seen himself. Even before it had actually come true.

Jamie had believed it would happen for him from his first days at school. He had believed in his dream even when others had laughed in his face.

Not just the kids but the teachers too.

“How many boys do you think I’ve seen come through this school saying that they want to be footballers?” Jamie’s head teacher, Mr Patten, had once asked him rhetorically. “Thousands, if not tens of thousands… And do you know how many actually did it? Zero. So I suggest that you start thinking of another career, Mr Johnson.”

But Jamie had done no such thing. He wasn’t interested in what had happened to the other kids who had gone through his school. They were not like him. He was different. He had always known it. And if people wanted to doubt him, Jamie didn’t care. Every cackle, every joke at his expense was more motivation for him. More fuel to fire his ambition.

He simply kept believing, kept working, kept focusing on the vision he had in his mind’s eye of becoming a professional.

And yet now he was back exactly where Mr Patten had told him he would be: searching for a career other than football.

The question battered his brain with continual menace.

WHAT NOW?