Fighting through in my youth, for father land, sweat and blood. - Desire Oparanozie

Though I’ve had a successful career, I won’t entirely say I’m fulfilled because I still believe there’s room for improvement and that gets me working extra hard.

We knew that we would probably have to win the game to progress, but I was injured and could not play. That was very frustrating, sitting on the sidelines and not being able to help the team.

Playing in France has been good. I feel very welcome here. I've been happy since I got here and things have really improved compared to the other places that I've played in in Europe. It all started in New Zealand though. Playing there in a FIFA-organised tournament was a great platform for me. The experience was very good and I thought if I could play at this level, I could play at the World Cup. I told myself: 'Why not go all the way?