You’ve probably seen tons of movies with a heartbreaking plot of a genuine underdog rising from poverty and above ill-fated lifepath to pursue a dream of becoming an icon. And when you watch them, you inevitably jump to a conclusion they exaggerated a bit because real life is different from that, excruciating and without a ‘happy end’.Well, guess what? They’re not wrong, but you are.Randy Nteka’s life story – worth some ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ spin-off – is living proof of it. Randy Nteka: de limpiar los vestuarios a triunfar con el Rayo. #NoticiasVamos pic.twitter.com/OXIYxa7sHz— Fútbol en Movistar+ (@MovistarFutbol) November 5, 2021 For the 23-year-old French attacking midfielder of an Angolese father and Congolese mother, it’s been a long road from the slums of suburbian Paris to the spotlight of the Spanish LaLiga.In an interview for a Madrid-based newspaper El Pais, one of the most relying figures of Rayo Vallecano – a side that came from the second division and took the elite league by storm – reveals how awful it was for him once he came to Spanish soil only a few years ago.”I lived with my mother. I came to Madrid because they told me they had a team for me, and it turned out that it didn’t exist. Rayo B informed me that it has no space for signing new players. I had fallen to Betis San Isidro (a local, fifth-tier slot). I had a horrible time. I did not speak or understand Spanish. It was not what I expected, but people were very good to me. They helped me. When I was not playing or training, I cleaned the changing rooms and opened and closed the facilities. I ate what I could, lots of sandwiches. After a week and a half, I wanted to go back to Paris, but my father and my friends asked me to continue, not to give up. They told me that it was better to stay and try than to go back and spend my life thinking about what could have happened. “My father told me: ‘It’s now or never. Football is your life. You have nothing here. Try your luck, it doesn’t cost you anything.”##EDITORS_CHOICE##But Nteka’s father had to listen to his son crying on the phone, lonesome and hopeless in a foreign country without being given a chance to show his excellence.”I do not know if I have been solid mentally to overcome everything I went through, but I do know that I have always had a family and good friends who helped me in those bad times. I spoke almost every day with my father and cried on the phone. It’s true. There were days that I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to go back and quit football. If it’s not for me, it’s not for me, I’ll quit, I thought. I didn’t tell my mother how bad it was so she wouldn’t suffer.”Nteka celebrates with Rayo Vallecano fans (© Diego Souto/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)Everything changed for Nteka once he was approached by a second-tier outfit Fuenlabrada. It was a light at the end of the darkest possible tunnel…”They paid me, and I had a house. The first thing I told the coaches is that they don’t worry about me – I’ll play wherever they say.”##NAJAVA_MECA_5959636##Nteka scored eight goals for Fuenlabrada during the 2020/2021 campaign, being the club’s top goalscorer as they achieved a mid-table finish. That achievement provided him with a move to a newly-promoted LaLiga team Rayo Vallecano. Yes, they are also a suburbian side of the capital city, but it’s totally different for our hero than it was earlier in Paris.Falcao goes from luxury and glamour to playing for a working-class team in the suburbs of Madrid”Now, I am finally enjoying myself. I am already a professional player, and I enjoy it, but I remember the past a lot. “I play less, but it’s normal. A great striker, Falcao, arrived with tremendous experience and what I have to do is learn from him and from everyone. Falcao gives me advice, tells me that I have to be focused and that when my time comes, do it as I know, ” concludes Randy.
