Matt Turner's expectations were low as he sat down to write the email that would change the rest of his life. He had only taken up football aged 14 as a way to stay in shape for his initial sporting loves of basketball and baseball, before a freak injury to the freshman year 'keeper saw him thrust in goal for high school try outs.
Even then he would not make the varsity squad for another year and did not begin playing for a team until the age of 16, just over a year younger than Bukayo Saka was when he made his professional debut for Arsenal. Despite some obvious promise no college teams showed an interest in taking him on for one of their sporting programmes and it appeared Turner's footballing career would be limited to a short-lived teenage memory. It was at this point though, where he decided to take his destiny into his own hands.
Having already been accepted on as an academic student at Fairfield University in Connecticut, Turner thought he'd chance his arm and see if their goalkeeping coach fancied coming down to watch him at a summer tournament he was playing in. Javier Decima's inbox is a busy place though. In recruitment season he receives about 150 emails a day featuring highlight reels of high school students hoping to get on to his college's soccer programme. Turner's was just one of many, but to this day Decima is glad that he opened it.
