Sunny: When a dream comes true

Sunny was born in Lagos, Nigeria to a family so poor that it literally faced life as a day to day challenge. Stephen had always wanted to become a professional football player and joined the famous Taribo West football academy. He was soon approached by one of the numerous agents monitoring Nigerian football who set him up with a club in Belgium. Sunny instantly accepted the proposal and felt that his dreams might be coming true sooner than expected. However, the first deception followed soon after – Sunny arrived to Paris where he was supposed to meet an agent, but found that he would have to rely solely on himself; the agent didn't appear at the airport and Sunny feared a painful return to Nigeria. Right before he left he had contacted two of his friends, Elvis and Lloyd, who played in Spain’s Tercera Division. They invited him to join them in Spain and spend some time at their place.

Already in Europe, Sunny couldn't afford to reject the invitation. Sunny found himself in Madrid playing in a team consisting of Nigerian emigrants and soon started showing signs of being an extremely talented player. In a friendly match against Rayo Vallecano's juveniles, Sunny played a superb game, impressing Polideportivo Ejido's scout Rodrigo Fernandez who had dropped by to spy on young prospects. "I have just spotted an extraordinary player," was the message he delivered to the coach of the team, Pepe Mel. Fernandez literally begged Mel to bring Sunny to the club as soon as possible and even asked the director of the club, Juan Jose Melero to sort out his asylum status. Sunny – if we forgot to mention – was in Spain illegally.

At just 17 years of age, Sunny appeared in 30 matches for Poli in the Spanish Segunda Division and became an indispensable member of the team. Pundits were impressed by his amazing technical skills and the high level of maturity he showed despite his young age. Sunny is a typical African central midfielder: a relentless hard-worker, physically strong, a good passer of the ball and despite not firing too many shots at the goal, incredibly strong legs.

Without any doubt, we can say that we're dealing with a jewel who appears destined to mark his career with continued success and hopefully fewer "betrayals" than he experienced at Paris airport.

Things have only gotten better for Sunny. In his second year in Spain he was invited to represent the Spanish U-17 national team, the call-up coming only days after he was granted Spanish citizenship. In the beginning of the summer's "mercado" in Spain Valencia confirmed his signing for €1.8m. His dreams have come true, almost. For most of us it's just a dream, but there are always exceptions. Just ask Sunny.