Abdulai Juma Bah: The boy from the bakery who sparked a tug of war in Spain and has his sights set on winning trophies with Man City

Most of Manchester City's best youth prospects spend their childhoods playing on pristine pitches, eating the best food and working with the best coaches in the business at the world-class City Football Academy. But City's latest exciting young talent had quite a different upbringing to that of his future team-mates. Abdulai Juma Bah would wake up at four in the morning in Sierra Leone to deliver wood to power the oven of his family's bakery. On other days he would help his mother grind up chicken and fish and help her sell it on the streets.

He didn't play football on 4G astroturf pitches or swish indoor facilities but on muddy, stony streets of his neighbourhood Congo Market and the conditions were not much better when he started playing for professional clubs. But the 6'5 centre-back stood out as a diamond in the rough and has an exciting future mapped out for him.

He became the first player from Sierra Leone to play in La Liga after a bright if short-lived spell with Real Valladolid and is now plying his trade in Ligue 1 with Lens. But bigger things await after he signed for City in January, sparking a bitter feud between the Premier League champions and the Spanish side, who were left feeling sore after losing one of the hottest young centre-backs in the game.

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