James Fahmy has vivid memories of the exact phone call that prompted him to make the biggest decision of his life.
The young defender signed with QPR at the age of 9 and played in the same side as Liverpool star Harvey Elliott, while also squaring off against the likes of Bukayo Saka, Armanda Broja, Fabio Carvalho and Noni Madueke.
Having been a schoolboy scholar, he was on the verge of penning a professional contract with the West London club when his head was completely turned by a scout from Harvard, arguably the biggest university in the world.
Not wanting to put all of his eggs in one basket, James had prepared alternative plans in the event that his dream football career didn’t take off and was looking into studying across the pond.Those plans might have been a back-up at first but that soon changed.
“He was just phoning me because we'd met earlier that day,” Fahmy recalled, chatting to SPORTbible over a Zoom call.
“And I was anticipating to get a lot more knowledge about the recruitment process and how everything worked with America, because I was still very raw to how it all worked. And I remember the conversation was going very smoothly, very normally, I suppose.“And then he told me that if you do everything right, you'll have a 95% chance of getting to Harvard.
“And I remember, literally my jaw dropped. And my parents are looking at me in the eye. And I was like, ’Oh my god!’.
“Everybody has heard of the name across the world. When I was looking into American universities, I never imagined that it could be a place where I would be able to end up. And I think that moment of being told, if you are disciplined and go for this, then that can become a reality.
“In terms of making a decision when something like Harvard was a possibility, that was my tunnel vision for there.”James’ parents both encouraged him to pursue sport but they were incredibly supportive of his decision.
However, he then had the daunting task of telling his coaches who he had worked with day in, day out, that he had a different dream.
“I was nervous to tell my coaches just because going to university and being a professional footballer aren't exactly synonymous.“And I didn't think it would be taken too well. But I remember as soon as I told my coach Paul Furlong the time, the room of sports and conditioning coaches that were there and the physio therapists and psychologists were all so proud of me for being able to achieve something.
“There was never a thought in their mind that they were going to make it difficult for me or hold me back from going and that's something I'll be very grateful for.”
Balancing his football with education, James did well at school, racking up ten GCSEs in the year that the secondary school grades were changed from letters to numbers.
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