For many years, I thought of football as nothing but the beautiful game that so many of us love. Whether you start playing at a young age, or later in life, the passion for the game is the same.
I was lucky enough to be signed by MK Dons when I was seven years old, which ended up being the team that I dedicated 11 years of my life to. It was a dream come true but being a part of an academy made me realise very quickly how demanding football is, and at an early age I found myself constantly fighting the urge to be a teenager.
At 14 I remember going into training one day with my hair longer than usual. I was told it had to be cut by the next training session as it wasn’t ‘professional’. Whilst some teenagers would have refused, deep down I understood this was their way of teaching me discipline and how to become the best version of myself, which I’m still thankful for today.
