did it affect your mental health? i was in my room 21w, didn t want to leave, i didn t want to do anything. like i was really not in a good place. foday was released by fulham in march 2018. he blames aidy ward for pushing him into a move he was never happy with. i didn t want to go there in the first place. i didn t feel like i ever really settled in. i would be on my phone to my friend on the way to training, crying, saying how much i didn t want to go. it was very painful. foday is currently without a club and training with a non league team. aidy ward s career as a football agent has gone from strength to strength. but the evidence is mounting, that his agency colossal targets underage players.
he liked nice things. every time i saw him it was a different watch. and then he d joke about, ah, when you make da da da da, i ll get you one of these. looking back at it now, there is alarm bells. if it was outside of football, would you speak to a 12 year old on the street when you saw them without their parent? foday says his mum him signed him up with aidy ward. and that aidy ward began talking to him about moves to other clubs. what did they say? just that how many teams wanted me to go to them and why i should, like, why i should go. that s like when my head started getting to. into my head a bit. birmingham was in the championship. now foday was being introduced to premier league clubs. went to man city the first meeting. went to like chelsea for the day. went to west ham for the week.
on matters being investigated by the fa out of respect for that process. and says he was never foday nabay s agent. he didn t respond to the other points i put to him, so i ve come to his house to try and get some answers. i m just going to dial his intercom, see if he picks up. the person who answers says i ve got the wrong house which is odd because we know he lives here. but today there s no sign of him. we put a series of allegations to him about approaching and signing under age players and using them to make money and he just didn t think to respond. the football association says it thoroughly investigates all allegations of rule breaking by agents, and that around 50 have been sanctioned over the last three years. but with so much money
at stake, many agents still seem willing to take the risk. we do see some players being led by the agent and the agents themselves exploit that relationship of trust. they will look to develop the player s career in a manner which is the most financially beneficial for the agent and not necessarily in terms of the players long term football development. it s moving kids around at the whim of adults for the purposes of adult s benefits. to places where they don t necessarily want to go, need to go or are the best places for them. they re commodities of a club. they re a commodity of the agent. aspiring young players are being caught up in a system driven by money and national success. if england win the next
how are you? foday nabay was born in sierra leone and moved to england with his mum when he was six. and he went on to become part of the england youth set up from a young age. a star at birmingham city s academy, he had high hopes for the future. did you think i was going to drop that? my time at birmingham was really good, it was fun. i didn t want to go home and when i went home i couldn t wait to go back into training. that s like how much i was enjoying football at the time. my long term goal was being the youngest ever player to make a debut for the first team. it wasn t long before aidy ward got in touch. what age were you at that point? 12, not older than 12 years old. he came across like friendly but serious. kind of likejokey.