As a child Andre Onana was everywhere but between the posts.
“Back in the days”, Onana recalled about playing near his home at a pitch known locally as Giuseppe Meazza, “it was really small, it was just for five, six, max eight people. It was different than Old Trafford one hundred per cent.”
The Manchester United goalkeeper, who was born and raised in Cameroon, admits he didn't want to be a goalkeeper.
"We used to put the bad player in the goal so I was everywhere but not in the goal because I was considering myself a good player," he said. "I thought I was good at that time. That’s why I didn’t want to be a goalkeeper."
However, the kick-start of his career between the posts came when he fell in love with goalkeeping thanks to his brother who played the same position.
"My brother Cristian Onana, he was playing in Cameroon, and he was a goalkeeper so because of him I started to love that position and boom, everything changed," Onana said.
Onana attributes his success to his family, friends and in being African, which he says with pride is "a big privilege". But he admits that to get on the road to becoming the Man Utd No 1 he had to suffer.
"I left my country years ago," he says. "I left everything behind me. My family, my friends. You have to sacrifice a lot.”
Onana's interview underlines the message that in the Premier League greatness comes from everywhere. It comes as the Premier League's No Room For Racism initiative reinforces that diversity on the pitch - with 123 different nations represented so far - has played such a pivotal role in making the competition what it is now.
