The £30m striker had a remarkable route into the professional game but it has given him the mental strength to succeed
From rejections to muggings, Leon Bailey’s journey to the Premier League has been a whirlwind ride. But throughout all the trials and tribulations, the Jamaica international has never given up on his dream.
A little over a decade ago, the player Aston Villa signed at the start of August for a reported £30m was sitting in an office with his stepfather, Craig Butler, and his brothers, Kevaughn and Kyle, shivering from the Austrian cold. Opposite the four of them, Red Bull Salzburg’s academy director had a bemused expression on his face. “You want a trial?”