ESPN.com · Oct 10, 2023
How the NFL Academy is helping the league grow internationally
EMMANUEL OKOYE STEPPED out of the airport last September in London and the first thing he noticed was the cold. He wasn't prepared for it.
How in the span of a few months did he transform from a basketball player in Nigeria to a college prospect in a game he knew little about? He had watched football only on television, yet it was football -- American football -- that led him to get on the plane in Lagos in search of the opportunity he never knew existed.
Nigerian coaches spotted Okoye in 2022 while they were scouting for a football camp put on by former NFL player Osi Umenyiora. They convinced Okoye to give football a shot, bringing him to that camp in May 2022 and then another in Ghana.
