Huddersfield Town star Sorba Thomas has admitted that his exit from Premier League side West Ham United felt like a ‘smack in the face’, while speaking to the BBC after earning his maiden Wales call-up.
The EFL is full to bursting of former Hammers youngsters making a name for themselves away from the glare of the top flight.
Dan Kemp’s Leyton Orient are flying high in League Two, Anthony Scully and Dapo Afolayan cannot stop scoring in the division above while Sorba Thomas, arguably the surprise star of the entire Championship season, has a Huddersfield side who went into the campaign as one of the frontrunners for relegation knocking on the door of the play-offs.
It is fair to say Thomas, who has seven assists to his name in just 13 games, has risen like a flaming phoenix from the ashes of his West Ham career.
Will West Ham end up wishing they had kept Sorba Thomas?
“Being told you’re not good enough is a smack in the face,” said the 22-year-old, who has worked his way back up the pyramid after a transformative, confidence-boosting spell in Non-League with Boreham Wood.
“That was the first time I was told I wasn’t good enough. I didn’t take it well. I didn’t really want to play anymore.
“I kind of fell out of love with the game and tried to look at Plan Bs. My family and friends knew how much I wanted to be a pro footballer and getting back on the horse was hard.
“I started a little Sunday League team for a few months and tried to find the love again. I went to Boreham Wood and success started there really.”
An international debut during Friday’s World Cup qualifier with the Czech Republic would certainly complete a remarkable turnaround for a player who was strutting his stuff against the likes of Altrinham, Solihull Moors and Bromley as recently as last year.
Sorba Thomas is living proof that being rejected by a Premier League club is not the end; merely an opportunity to rebuild and refresh.
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