Whole new ball game in US for Francis

"Level headed": Francis Kallon Jnr, from Wandsworth
Jack Rivlin12 April 2012

A teenage boy from Wandsworth is poised to make a fortune as an American football star despite barely knowing the rules to the game.

Francis Kallon Jnr was spotted by a coach who saw him playing soccer shortly after he moved to the United States with his mother.

Since then the 17-year-old, who is 6ft 5in and weighs 18 and a half stone, has been bombarded with scholarship offers from 13 American colleges. The former pupil of Salesian College, Battersea, said: "It has been overwhelming at times but I just have to know where my priorities lie and focus on getting better. I enjoy giving 100 per cent."

His rise to fame has been hailed as one of the game's greatest stories in decades. TV sports analyst Jamie Newberg described it as "maybe the single greatest recruiting story I can remember".

He was raised by his mother, Rose, after his Sierra Leonean father, Francis Snr, moved to the US. When his parents were re-united last year, they married and Francis agreed to move 4,200 miles to Atlanta, Georgia.

It was there that he caught the attention of his coach, Todd Wofford, who was impressed by his footwork while playing soccer. Wofford said Francis was handling the fame "better than most teenagers would".

He said: "The girls have been coming from all over but he has kept a level head as much as possible.

"It's an incredible story. If he does make it as far as he potentially could, it would be a great movie."

Although he had offers from more prestigious colleges such as Stanford and the University of California, Francis chose Georgia Tech so he could remain near his family.

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