Self goals to success

Dani Alves, Brazil

Born into a farming household, Alves started working in the fields near Juazeiro, a city in the Brazilian state of Bahía, along with his father and his siblings at a very young age. He used to take up extra work as a trader or a waiter to supplement income and practice football in his time off.














Clint Dempsey, USA

This Texan grew up in a trailer park in a family with money constraints. He lost his sister to a brain aneurysm when he was barely 12 and he has gone on record saying that this event left him devastated and helped him develop “a deeper motivation to pursue soccer in honour of his sister”.














Afriyie Acquah, Ghana

From living on the streets of Ghana to playing in football’s biggest event in Brazil, Acquah’s story is one of enduring passion for the game. With the help of a school teacher in Belfast, the shy footballer from Sunyani in Ghana turned his life around and lived his dream.













Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal

His father was a municipal gardener who drank his way to an early death and his mother was a cook. He lived in a tin-roofed house that overlooked the ocean with his siblings. He soon fell in love with football. The rest is history.














Sergio Agüero, Argentina

A piece of cloth sufficed for a football when Agüero played in the streets of his home town of Quilmes, a crimeridden town near Buenos Aires. His father was a taxi-driver who ensured that his sons stayed off drugs and out of jail. Agüero credits football and Giannina Maradona, his ex-wife, for helping him make something of his life.














James Rodríguez, Colombia

World Cup ’14 saw the meteoric rise of James Rodríguez. His father Rodríguez Sr. was an amateur footballer who left the family when James was just three. James calls himself “Son of God” on social media and overcame a stuttering problem early on in his life.