SPOT THE ODD ONE OUT
snubbing the Ivy League to pursue his dream of the Premier League.
The Leeds striker was offered a football scholarship to study business by Harvard a decade ago when he was taking his A-levels at private school.
His goal was to make it to the top flight and he turned down the prestigious Ivy League university to sign his first professional contract with Nottingham Forest.
“I was at the point where all my mates at school were filling in their UCAS applications for university and the teachers were saying I had to do the same just in case,” he said. “I didn’t want to go to uni, my mind was set on football. I thought if I’m going to go to uni, I want to play football.
“The States was the only real option where it would be possible. I put some feelers out and the first university we got in touch with was in Connecticut.
“As soon as they came back, others began sniffing about. That’s when Harvard came in. It sounds strange to say Harvard was only a back-up, I was so determined to make it at football that it was on the back-burner.
“Once I signed professionally it would no longer be an option so it came down to, ‘You’ve been offered a professional contract, so do you sign that or go to uni in America?’ There was only one option.”
Bamford, 27, made the right choice and he is living his dream in the Premier League with Leeds.
He failed to make it with today’s opponents Chelsea, but is more interested in improving Leeds’ results than proving anything to his old club.
“It would be a good one to win,” said Bamford, who was a Chelsea player for five years until 2017. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Bamford was disappointed with his poor finishing in Leeds’ 2-0 loss to West Ham on Monday, which was their fifth defeat in their last seven games, and admits he should have had a hat-trick.
But he does not need anyone’s sympathy.
“You almost feel a little bit worse off if someone starts putting their arm around you,” he told the Official Leeds
United Podcast. “You’re like, ‘Get off, come on mate, I know when I’m not doing something right.’
“That’s what I always find, if you’ve done something wrong or something hasn’t gone your way, you may be frustrated about it immediately afterwards. But then you laugh it off, you don’t dwell on it.
“West Ham are a top-six side and you saw us dominate them. I know we lost 2-0, so it sounds weird, but we played well and created chances.”
Bamford and his team-mates watched the game on the journey back to Leeds and says sitting through it boosted them.
“On the bus on the way home, we watched the game back,” he said.
“We created enough to get something and it looked like we were in control so we were able to take some positives out of the game.”
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