Retired Bolton Wanderers midfielder Fabrice Muamba is poised to return to his old club in a coaching role in the academy and has grand ambitions to one day manage the Whites.
The 33-year-old suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch at White Hart Lane during an FA Cup quarter-final against Tottenham Hotspur while playing for Wanderers.
Muamba dropped to the ground after his heart stopped on March 17, 2012. It took medics an excruciating 78 minutes to resuscitate the then-23-year-old.
Muamba came through the youth team ranks at Arsenal before moving on to Birmingham City and later to Bolton, for whom he played 148 times and scored four goals.
Following his recovery from the cardiac arrest, Muamba announced his retirement from football in August 2012.
He has since spent time being a pundit, studied for a degree in sports journalism at Staffordshire University and also undertaken coaching too at Rochdale with the club's under-16s.
But Muamba is now poised to return to Wanderers and begin coaching in their academy this summer for next season.
The former England youth international has ambitions of becoming a manager one day and has a target of doing so at Bolton, ultimately taking Wanderers back to take on Spurs, the side against whom he suffered his heart attack, and play them in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with White Hart Lane now demolished to make way for the new ground
The ex-central midfielder told the Sun : “I’m lucky to even still be here. Every day for the last ten years has been a blessing.
“To be back on the grass, kicking a ball at Bolton Wanderers, coaching in their academy, the club I was playing for when they brought me back round, feels fitting. I’m so happy.
“My dream is to one day manage, to be manager of Bolton and take them back to Tottenham, where I had my accident. Wow, that would be written in the stars.
“Now is a great time. It’s been a while and I’ve wanted to get back in and make a contribution to the football club.
“It’ll be nice to help them. I feel I owe them one, I owe the people of Bolton. There’s an unfinished story there.”
