Sport
Gael Bigirimana: Coventry’s star from Burundi
Gael Bigirimana. PHOTO/Coventry City Banter
Gael Bigirimana was walking to the supermarket with his brother to buy some milk when he spotted Coventry City’s academy training facility.
The following day he went there and asked for a trial. Slightly bemused, the coaching staff looked at the smiling yet determined 11-year-old with the broken English and explained that the club did not just take on young players who turned up unannounced. He would have to be scouted like everybody else.
Running home afterwards, having left details of the school he attended and buoyed by the promise that somebody from Coventry would come to watch him play, Bigirimana was surprised when a member of the coaching staff stopped him.
“They asked if I had all the equipment, boots, shin pads and stuff like that,” Bigirimana told BBC Sport. “I said ‘yes’ but I did not. They said they saw me running fast but to tell you the truth I was jogging.
Miracle or not, seven years later the 18-year-old has just been named the Football League Championship Apprentice of the Year for a season in which he has made a significant impact at the struggling second-tier club.
