"I walked into Leicester for a trial and one of the guys asked me 'are you really a football player? Why don't you play cricket?' I asked him to see me on the field and decide. They thought I was too short," says Fernandes, who is 165 cms tall and weighs 62 kg — an average Indian build which may go against him at least in England.
He had similar problems in South Africa. "The opponents knew there was an Indian in the side. It was an U-19 game and the coach put me on for the last 15 minutes. You know what? In 10 of those minutes I got three touches of the ball — three. Then in the last five minutes, I got the ball in the middle, tried a long-ranger and it went in. After that, they knew my name too — I wasn't just another Indian," Fernandes said.
I see uncanny similarity between Steptoe guys and Brendan Keyes (Pratik Shinde LOLers). Just like Keyes thought he could sell jerseys in the name of Pratik Shinde, ASD Capetown is thinking they would become big brandname just by taking Brandon Fernandes for sightseeing in Europe.
All the players who have made it big have went, trialed, got selected and then made news. ASD fanning Brandon's news everytime he buys an airticket
Anyway, it's good that ASD is atleast giving him quality training . More and more guys should train in foreign academies at a younger age so that we can atleast get some quality guys at the ileague level if not a world beater.
Was bored, so read the last 350 comments in this thread. Here's a short summary for those who want to skip the whole thread -
1) Brandon is an European material and has impressed scouts and coaches. However, whenever he gets an opportunity to sign either there is a management issue or there is a media leakage issue and thus the clubs back out at the last moment.
2) ASD is very secretive, however, almost everyone knows about what is happening, thinking they are the only one who knows it.
3) Things move so professionally that guys who are friends of Brandon's friends, his neighbours, facebook friends know everytime he moves out of his house.
4) Brandon now has a good collection of fantastic reports about his performance.
5) Most of the updates about Brandon seems to have propagated from himself.
Comments
"I walked into Leicester for a trial and one of the guys asked me 'are you really a football player? Why don't you play cricket?' I asked him to see me on the field and decide. They thought I was too short," says Fernandes, who is 165 cms tall and weighs 62 kg — an average Indian build which may go against him at least in England.
He had similar problems in South Africa. "The opponents knew there was an Indian in the side. It was an U-19 game and the coach put me on for the last 15 minutes. You know what? In 10 of those minutes I got three touches of the ball — three. Then in the last five minutes, I got the ball in the middle, tried a long-ranger and it went in. After that, they knew my name too — I wasn't just another Indian," Fernandes said.