‘It was the making of me’: Lloyd Kelly on his journey from foster care to the Premier League

For Lloyd Kelly, the route to the Premier League has been unconventional. In the next two weeks, Bournemouth’s new signing will aim to make England Under-21s glory the latest stop on a journey that has gone from foster care to sporting stardom via an “eye-opening” trip to Botswana.

Last month, the 20-year-old became a £15m footballer when he left Bristol City, his hometown club, and rather than viewing his time in care as an obstacle, Kelly believes it was the making of him.

“I feel everything has a reason,” says Kelly, who persuaded Bournemouth to part with big money despite making just 33 league starts for Bristol City.

“I wouldn’t be sitting talking to you guys if it wasn’t for going into foster care,” insists the defender, who left foster care when he was 18.

“We moved to three different places throughout the years, different families. It was for three or four years each. I’m grateful for what everyone has done for me. They didn’t have to, it was nice they were willing to help us.”

Eye-opener in Botswana

Kelly’s most recent foster mother plans to travel to Italy and San Marino to watch him in action for Aidy Boothroyd’s under-21s along with his siblings. They will be backing a man whose career has soared since he first rubbed shoulders with the Bristol City first team in unusual circumstances, after putting his hand up to help out the club’s community efforts in Africa.“I’d just left secondary school and someone I knew who worked in the Community Trust asked if I wanted to go along to this two-week Botswana thing,” he recalls. “I thought it would be a good experience.”

The first team were out there on pre-season tour and at this point I had nothing to do with them, I was just a young lad in the academy. We went out and did some charity work and we went round to different schools and saw what their life was like.

“There are nice parts but when you went into the different areas you could see it was tough for the people. Even our presence was nice, all the children are buzzing and the teachers were getting involved in the games and we had shirts and football stuff to give them.

“I don’t think they stopped smiling for three days. I was so young, I didn’t really know what life was like apart from living in England. I was speaking to one kid and he had to walk nine kilometres to get to school. It was an eye opener.”

Whirlwind rise

On returning to England, Kelly found himself fast-tracked into City’s first-team plans and two impressive seasons later he secured a big-money transfer, an under-21s call-up and the chance to train with the senior England side at St George’s Park.

“It has been a whirlwind,” he admits. “Ending the season at Bristol and not getting into the play-offs, which we hoped for, then quickly moving on to signing my deal with Bournemouth.

“It is always something I have looked for, to play Premier League football, and now I am coming away with the 21s I am looking forward to the tournament.”