There’s nothing I hate more than players with obvious talents not putting in the graft to realise it.
There were two stand out footballers in our school, there wasn’t much between them in terms of technical ability.
One of them was a complete tosser. Always messing about in lessons and swaggered about like he owned the place. He was an outstanding footballer but god did he know it. He was involved with a few of the local academies’ but never settled for long at any of them. I have no idea what he’s up to now.
The other lad was quite reserved and humble, bordering on shy. He worked his bollocks off whenever he played, he’d bust a gut just to win a game of crossbar but was never smug about it when he did. He spent his every spare second practising on the local fields with anybody willing to have a kick about. I remember a teacher once aggressively suggested he should spend less time ‘playing’ and more time on his homework and he broke into tears in front of the class. He’s now a millionaire England international and got a champions league winners medal.
For every professional footballer there are 1000 more just as talented who let it slip because they didn't put the miles in. I have no doubt Cofie will make a living from football, his pedigree alone will earn him a few contracts but there's a good footballer in there should he decide to pull his socks up and 'earn' the right to play.