GREAT BRITAIN'S national sport of Footballer Bashing has been back in full swing this week.
The country seems to be clambering over itself to make comparisons between our humble, down to earth Olympians with the arrogant, stuck-up professionals of our national game.
Step forward Stockport County captain Joe Connor. The 26-year-old doesn't just topple the, in some cases valid, debate, he bats it right out of the Olympic Park.
Connor, grandson of County legend Jack, returned from to England last November after living in America for eight years.
His journey over the pond was to take up a soccer scholarship as an 18-year-old fresh from his release by Macclesfield where he, in his own words, wasn't really good enough to make the first team.”
He came back with two degrees in PE & Recreation and Bible, a wife Macie, and a three-year-old daughter Miriam.
“I went over to America to do a soccer scholarship at Lee University in Tennessee, it was a small little school but we had a pretty good football team,” says Connor, who has had another daughter, Eliana, since arriving back in England.
“I didn't really grow and develop until I was about 19. I'm really not that talented but I just work hard and because of that I improved a lot. People really took time to help me out there with things like weightlifting and physically developing.
?Then I met an American girl and we got married so I stayed out there for another four years playing professionally for the Charlotte Eagles in North Carolina. I loved it.
“Me and my wife were involved in a lot of Christian organisations, we worked in churches and in outreach projects in poor neighbourhoods.
“The places we worked in were really rough. We used to go in where there were gangs and violence as well as a lot of drug abuse and broken homes.
“We'd simply just go in and play football and sports with the guys. We'd try to help them in school, give Bible studies and help them out if they needed food or clothes.
Scary
?America is a funny place. Charlotte, the town where I did the outreach work, is full of millionaires. Then you'd go into a certain neighbourhood and there would be poverty.
?I worked in a neighbourhood where there were drugs on the streets, kids playing with no parents around – most were single parent families because the dad was in prison – and guns.
?There was one kid we got really close to. His mum was shot dead in the crossfire of a gang fight one night. It was sad to see.
?We would see great stories too though. We just wanted to put a smile on the kids' faces and help them aspire to something.”
Last November they decided to move back to Connor's native Stockport with the plan that he would try and earn a deal in the Football League. But an agent he had lined up went to ground on him so he was on his own.
?I was living with my mum and dad but essentially we had nothing; it was me, my wife, my kid and another baby on the way so it was a bit scary, Connor, a County fan growing up, says.
?County got beat 7-0 by Grimsby so I thought, Im going to see if I can go and play for them. I showed up at the training ground told them I'd been playing in America and asked if I could join in. They said no so I asked if I could just watch because I wanted to see what the standard was like.
?Then they were a player short so they let me jump in. I played well and two days later the manager Jim Gannon wanted to sign me.
Privilege
?I came at the perfect time really. They'd just been hammered so Jim was looking for anything really. If I'd come at another time I don't think I would have had a chance of getting in.”
Connor has continued his work in the community through Stockport County Church.
Connor says: ?I go out in a place called Brinington on a Friday night, play football with the kids, take them out for dinner every now and then and just try to chat to them to help get them down a different path. It's a privilege to be able to do it.”
Earning the trust of Stockport fans was no doubt easier with strong family bloodlines to Edgeley Park. His dad, Jimmy, played three times before injury cut short his stay but grandad Jack is in a league of his own.
Signed from Bradford City in 1951 he scored 140 goals in 217 games, holds the club record of 17 hat-tricks and was voted County Player of the Century in 2000.
Connor says: ?I remember staying over at my gran's house and my grandad would take me for a walk to the shop in the morning and people would come up to speak about County.”
Now with the captain's armband handed to him this season it's all about putting the smile back on those fans' faces.
He adds: “We're nowhere near favourites and it's really early days but we've got some young enthusiastic players who want to impress.”
Connor certainly does that.
