“Everyone thought it would be Harry Kane winning a league but instead it is me,” Dapo Afolayan says of being the only English striker to win a title in Germany this season, which in turn has earned him the opportunity to test himself against the England captain next season in the Bundesliga.
The former Bolton player was an influential member of St Pauli’s promotion-winning side after swapping Greater Manchester for Hamburg 18 months ago. It has been a long journey for the 26-year-old, one in which Afolayan left Chelsea’s academy aged 14 in order to get the education he wanted, leading to a degree in civil engineering while playing part-time at Loughborough University and with Solihull Moors before being plucked from the bottom of the fifth tier by West Ham. Next season he will come up against some of the continent’s best. It is a long way from playing in the ninth tier in a team of students.
