Tamika Mkandawire on West Brom education, flourishing after release and helping NFL's next generation
Talented footballers are almost always picked up by a professional club at an early age, if they show glimpses of potentially being able to make it as a player.
But sometimes, there are players who slip through the net early on, before going on to flourish and have successful professional careers. That was the case for former Albion academy graduate Tamika Mkandawire.
The Malawi born defender, raised in Rugby, was in his late teens when he wrote to scores of professional clubs in search of a trial, having been inspired to chase the football dream after watching a documentary on Chelsea's youth academy involving ex-Albion defender Neil Clement.
It would be West Brom who handed him his big chance following a top drawer performance in a match for his local team.
That match almost never went ahead after the referee failed to turn up. The defender's coach was keen for it to take place, knowing an Albion scout had turned up to watch Mkandawire.
The defender was handed a professional contract at The Hawthorns and was in and around the first team at the turn of the millennium under as Gary Megson turned around the club's fortunes, but failed to make an appearance.
Rather than slip out of the professional game like so many others do, Mkandawire pressed on and played 350 times in the Football League, at clubs such as Millwall, Leyton Orient, and Hereford.
