David Ornstein has revealed he dreamed of becoming a Premier League footballer and was even on trial with a top-flight club before he became a journalist.
The sports reporter is one of the best in the game and is a cult hero among football fans for his transfer updates and insider information.
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However, the transfer oracle once had a very different plan for his life and career as a boy - he wanted to play the game, not write about it.
In a conversation with Manchester United legend Dwight Yorke, former Bolton striker Kevin Davies and Daily Mirror editor Darren Lewis, Ornstein opened up on the figures in football who have inspired him.
And he revealed he spent a full year on trial at Chelsea, and later had a job at Pizza Hut, before deciding to give a career in journalism his full focus.
“I only knew to graft - I had no academic intelligence and failed very badly at school exams because all I wanted to do was play football,” he told the Dwight and Friends podcast.
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“I was on trial for a year at Chelsea and my mind was set on becoming a Premier League football or a professional athlete.
“I saw relatives, brothers, cousins getting top results and going to university and I was thinking, ‘What on earth am I gonna do here?’ At one point I was a waiter at Pizza Hut in my spare time from school, but I just thought, ‘You have to work harder’.
“If you have one of academic intelligence or hard work, some people are blessed with both and I'm not unfortunately, but the graft and the hard work will always get you somewhere.
"If you don't cut corners and if you manage to apply yourself, believe it or not you can work harder than everyone else if you want to - that can take you a long way.
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“It all comes down to the people you look up to on the journey in the decisions you make, and in our case it's from leaders like Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Sam Allardyce, Brian Little and so on.
“These people set the highest of standards… and that rubs off on people like me.
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"When you take that approach towards your journalism you conduct yourself to the highest standards of integrity, honesty and diligence that you apply to your craft.
“People say to me ‘How do you get so many stories right?’ and ‘How do you keep across so much stuff?’
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"But I would say to [players] how did you score so many goals and how did you play so well for so many teams and accumulate so many performances?
“It's because our inspirations have allowed us to learn and make decisions.”