There's hope for us all it seems. Well maybe not us all but if you've reached your twenties and think your dream of being a professional footballer has well and truly died, you're right, it has. However, it didn't for Carlos Bacca.
The Sevilla striker continued an excellent goalscoring season with two goals in the Europa League final to lead his club to a 3-2 win over Dnipro. The Colombian is now being linked with a £20+ million move to the likes of Man United, something which is a world away from where he was eight years ago.
Rags to riches stories are nothing new in a game that prides itself on its social inclusiveness but Bacca's is particularly remarkable. Speaking to Marca, the 28 year old shared his incredible story.
At 20 I was living in my village, Puerto Colombia, working as a bus driver's assistant. Life was far from easy. Next I had to work as a ticket collector on the buses because I come from a poor family and had to earn money to help them out.
The doors of football had been closed to me for some time and at my age, it wasn’t something I could count on anymore. But that year I trialled for Junior de Barranquilla and, thank God, they took me.
Coming from a particularly disadvantaged background, Bacca revealed that he did a lot of things that he is not proud of. However, he signed with Junior, impressed, got a move to Europe with Club Brugge and he's since played in the World Cup.
Summing up his experience to date, Bacca was suitably inspiring.
The brave are not those who let themselves sink but those who rise up stronger.
As we said, we're not going to try and give 20 year olds false hope that it's still possible but nonetheless, that's a great story.
