Tottenham wing ace Aaron Lennon has revealed how football saved his life.
Lennon, 20, is from the notorious Chapeltown area of Leeds and admits some of his closest friends have not been so lucky.
It took iron will and determination for him to stay on the straight and narrow.
He told Hotspur magazine: "The area was rough and there was some bad stuff going on.
"It's easy to go down the wrong path in that type of environment because you don't have too many options and nobody is out there trying to help.
"You go either two ways: Knuckle down, get an education and hopefully a career will follow, or you end up doing crime, drugs and that kind of thing.
"You see friends caught up with the wrong crowd so when I look back I'm lucky I had football to fall back on."