When Adebayo Akinfenwa was growing up in central London, he dreamed of playing professional soccer.
Problem was he never stopped growing, eventually developing a body the same size and shape of a Coke machine. But he refused to let his body outgrow his dream.
"I was told from a young age, 'You're too big to play football,' " he said. "My mind-set was, 'There's nobody that can tell me that I can't achieve what I want to do.' That defiance came from very young.
"I wouldn't say that I set out to be different. My mind-set was, 'Look, I want to play football.