James Fahmy has vivid memories of the exact phone call that prompted him to make the biggest decision of his life.
The young defender signed with QPR at the age of 9 and played in the same side as Liverpool star Harvey Elliott, while also squaring off against the likes of Bukayo Saka, Armanda Broja, Fabio Carvalho and Noni Madueke.
Having been a schoolboy scholar, he was on the verge of penning a professional contract with the West London club when his head was completely turned by a scout from Harvard, arguably the biggest university in the world.
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Not wanting to put all of his eggs in one basket, James had prepared alternative plans in the event that his dream football career didn’t take off and was looking into studying across the pond.
Those plans might have been a back-up at first but that soon changed.
“He was just phoning me because we'd met earlier that day,” Fahmy recalled, chatting to SPORTbible over a Zoom call.
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“And I was anticipating to get a lot more knowledge about the recruitment process and how everything worked with America, because I was still very raw to how it all worked. And I remember the conversation was going very smoothly, very normally, I suppose.
“And then he told me that if you do everything right, you'll have a 95% chance of getting to Harvard.
“And I remember, literally my jaw dropped. And my parents are looking at me in the eye. And I was like, ’Oh my god!’.
“Everybody has heard of the name across the world. When I was looking into American universities, I never imagined that it could be a place where I would be able to end up. And I think that moment of being told, if you are disciplined and go for this, then that can become a reality.
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“In terms of making a decision when something like Harvard was a possibility, that was my tunnel vision for there.”
James’ parents both encouraged him to pursue sport but they were incredibly supportive of his decision.
However, he then had the daunting task of telling his coaches who he had worked with day in, day out, that he had a different dream.
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“I was nervous to tell my coaches just because going to university and being a professional footballer aren't exactly synonymous.
“And I didn't think it would be taken too well. But I remember as soon as I told my coach Paul Furlong the time, the room of sports and conditioning coaches that were there and the physio therapists and psychologists were all so proud of me for being able to achieve something.
“There was never a thought in their mind that they were going to make it difficult for me or hold me back from going and that's something I'll be very grateful for.”
Balancing his football with education, James did well at school, racking up ten GCSEs in the year that the secondary school grades were changed from letters to numbers.
He got three sevens (A), three nines (A**) and four eights (A*). For his A-Levels, he didn’t have to sit any of his exams because of COVID-19 but still got an A*in English literature, a B in history, an A* in EPQ (extended project qualification) on the civil rights movement and a distinction star in BTEC Sport.
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But just how does one get into Harvard, where the acceptance rate for international students is 14.8%?
James explained: “Grades will always be one of those things which are important, but I think it's less about the numbers on your sheet and more about the work ethic behind the person.
“I think Harvard are looking for unique individuals from unique backgrounds who are willing to embrace what's around them, and they're looking for natural leaders who can go into any environment and be a person who wants to create change or wants to achieve the best in what they're doing.”
James is studying a four-year arts liberal arts degree, delving into a range of different topics and concentrating on English as well as doing a secondary in Economics.
However, he still has the ability to study psychology courses and gets “subsets of knowledge from lots of different fields”.
But crucially, Fahmy can also continue playing football at a high level because of the great emphasis placed on sports at college in America.
“The buzz around the traditional American sports like American football, basketball and hockey is something unbelievable. "For Harvard-Yale, which is the biggest rivalry, for the football game I went to there was a crowd of 55,000 people. For college students it’s crazy.
“And it’s something which is rising in soccer. But I think me going over there, I've had the experience of playing in front of 3000 people a couple of times. Playing academy football, I never would have probably been able to do otherwise.”
Fahmy is able to balance football and studies well because that’s all he’s ever known. As a youngster, he would typically go to school in the morning and then travel to training during the day, train, be shattered, then come back to school.
When he came back home, he would have to catch up on schoolwork and make sure that it was all in line.
At Harvard, in the fall, he and the team will be training more or less every day with games twice a week between August and November.
Then in the spring, when the season is done, we’re talking trips to the gym three or four times a week, with a lot more focus on building muscle and building strength ready for the next competition season.
As intense and strenuous as it can be, his most difficult period was his early days at Harvard due to the world turning up upside down with the COVID-19 pandemic.
QPR graciously allowed James to train when he wasn’t allowed to travel across the pond, but he had to do his first year from home, on the computer, without meeting any classmates in the flesh.
At the same time, a lot of his friends at home had gone to university.
“I would say that year where I was at home, studying during the height of the pandemic, was probably one of the toughest years in my life,” James reflected.
“It felt like I was very isolated and wasn't able to do much. And it felt like everybody else around me was progressing with their lives.
“As in people I used to play football with were making the next steps towards getting a new contract, my home friends had either begun working or going to university, and even the people around me, in my age group at university at Harvard, were allowed on campus and getting that social experience. And for me, it just felt like I was at a standstill.”
In the beginning of his sophomore year, with international travel opened up as vaccines were rolled out, Fahmy was able to travel to the states for his first semester and realise that American dream.
Lionel Messi might have made it look very easy at Inter Miami but Fahmy did not expect such a high standard of football in the states.
The programme had been struggling the year prior to his arrival but the university made a great effort to turn things around and brought in high calibre players from all across the world.
Each of the past two seasons were an improvement on the previous and now Fahmy, who modelled himself on John Stones and Mats Hummels, wants to end his final year with glory.
“I would say the level the level surprised me and the quality of players from all over the world.
“Alessandra Arlotti, who came from playing for Italy in youth World Cups and European Championships playing from Monaco academy and choosing to come to Harvard.
“We have a lad from New Zealand who played in the Under 20 World Cup against Holland, for Norway in their group and he chose to come to the States.
“And in my team alone, we have players who have played for Costa Rica's national team, Croatia, Canada's youth national teams, Iceland's national teams.
“The range of players from all over the world who have played at an extremely high level choosing to come to America definitely shows how feasible the pathway is.
“In my first season, we made a great improvement, coming fourth in the Ivy League and grabbing a lot more wins than they did previously. And in my second season, we improved on that and came third and just missed out on an at large bid to the NCAA tournament.
“So going into my last year, the goal is definitely to win the Ivy League and play in the national tournament at the end. And the fact that there is now an Ivy League tournament at the end of the season should hopefully boost our chances of making it.”
Over the summer, Liverpool midfielder Elliott, who Fahmy played with at QPR in the early days, was part of the England Under 21 side who became European champions under the tutelage of Lee Carsley.
But many from that crop did not make the grade, with the football industry so cutthroat and cruel. With that in mind, does James have any regrets over the choice he made?
“Absolutely not. I think for me, it was the best thing that I could have done,” he replied.
“And I think something which almost validates that is looking at where I would have been if I had chosen to stay on playing professional football in England. And I think looking at where some of my teammates are now and seeing them kind of a struggle to break into the first team or the fact that they lost their contract, I think if I decided to come back to England and pursue professional football, I could be on the same rung of the ladder as some of the people I was playing with four years ago, is something which never makes me doubt my decision to go over to the states.”
Leeds’ United winger Jack Harrison moved to the United States as a 14-year-old, leaving Manchester United’s academy after seven years.
He excelled in high-school football and later played at college level for Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina before signing for New York City in the MLS.
Manchester City signed him from their feeder club, and he’s since gone over to play over 100 times in the Premier League for Leeds.
James’ experience at Harvard, both in sport and education, means he has so many doors open in the future when he graduates.
At the time of our chat, he is working for an environmental consulting company as part of a 10-week internship.
But he could well still pursue football over in the states or even head back to England for a second bite of the cherry – though his mates will be hoping he removes “soccer”, “trash” and “trunk” from his vocabulary if that happens.
“There are still ambitions. Maybe for me having gone through the last few years, it will be something which I'll reassess. Probably once I graduate. But I like the fact that the door’s definitely open for that room.”
James Fahy was speaking exclusively to SPORT Bible as part of the docuseries Released by ThreeSixtyTV, which sees players tell their stories of being released by professional football academies in England. Watch all episodes here
Topics: Harvey Elliott, QPR
Josh Lawless