by Playing against his youth team Manchester United was a distant dream for Martial Godo two years ago, playing on the muddy pitches of the Isthmian League in the seventh tier. He thought it would eventually come, but at that time the short-term goal was to learn how to bounce back immediately after being hit by veteran fullbacks who were out of the league.
As a teenager in the man’s life, he was faced with a dilemma. Jump over the challenges and avoid the hit? Or take the risk, carry the ball and fight? The latter was the only way to get noticed while playing for Margate FC so he took the bat. Fulham impressed him and offered him a trial and deal and now, on loan at Wigan, Godo has been called up to the English under-20s.
He calls it two crazy years. At Margate, he considered falling further down the pyramid to begin a career that saw him rejected by most London clubs for being too small. Godo eventually joined the team and believed he would make it. His club was sponsored by the Libertines but there was no rock n’ roll behavior in the clubhouse. While others drank a pint, Godo believed he could still go to the Premier League.
“You get knocked out and you get back up. At the beginning at Margate I would try to tackle challenges and they could see it was working,” said Godo. “I had to start facing it and say, with the way I play I’m going to lose. It’s about how you become. Two or three times in the game I would be broken, but it helped me to be a man. You take that into the academy and men’s football.
“It helps, if you’re running away from challenges you don’t need the ball as much and you’re not going to take risks. Me, I love to entertain the fans as much as stats. But if I am not willing to dribble or tackle my opponent, I will not be the independent player. It was about changing my attitude, to get up again.”
Godo, 20, was a United fan as a child and felt they could be coming out of the hat for the FA Cup. When he talks about trying to entertain the crowds, it’s no surprise that his favorite United player is Dimitar Berbatov. He grew up wearing a United kit but his time was spent playing in the Greenwich cages, rather than watching the team he supported. It will be the first time to see them live playing against them on Monday.
“Cristiano Ronaldo was the obvious one but I was only five or six when he played for United,” said Godo. “When I was watching them properly Berbatov was my favourite. I enjoyed how elegant it was.”
Waiting For Godo was his path to the Premier League. He had trials at Tottenham, West Ham and Arsenal but was rejected. Charlton played friends and trained on him for a year without a deal, and then clubs further from London didn’t want to take a chance, including Ipswich and Colchester.
“When I was at Charlton, I had Osgoods [Osgood-Schlatter disease] on my knee,” he said. “I started growing a little between 14 and 15 and then stopped, then 16 to 18 it was a little bit later, then the lockup happened and I grew a few more inches to about 5ft 10in. I was 5ft 3in or 4in and that’s why I didn’t get into Charlton or West Ham. I was too small.
“I was still growing as a late bloomer but I knew I still had technical ability. Even when I was 18 there was beating and abuse because I was one of the youngest team at Margate and I wasn’t playing but I took my chance when it came. Before I left, it was a case of who I was signing with because I had a lot of teams.”
Fulham was a good choice for Godo. He tried out for a month and Marco Silva was impressed enough to start in the EFL Cup last season. After training with the first team, he was set to stay at the club for this campaign and it was Shaun Maloney that ultimately got him on loan.
“It was target day and the gaffer called me in. He said that many clubs approach me but he didn’t tell them all because he wanted me on his radar until at least January,” said Godo. “But he was at Hull with Shaun Maloney and he said I was a contender to start and they have a plan and a path to play at Wigan.
“He said it was hard to get me in, because I was doing really well in the academy. But it was too easy. So I could go week in week out playing men’s football, or be up and down with the first team here and wait for my chance. I sat down with my family and had four or five hours to settle. I thought ‘why am I staying at Fulham… just to stay in the academy?’
It has proved the right decision. He has done a great job at Wigan and now he has the chance to show that against United. Maloney helped train in the position he played in during his Cup winning career with Wigan.
“Remaining disciplined and patient were the key words with the gaffer,” he said. “It gives me confidence to be so reliable. He says he wants me to keep going even if I lose the ball. Go again. Go again.”
The reward is the recognition of England. But Godo wants more, beyond the glamor of the FA Cup and playing for the Under-20s. “It was surreal to sing the national anthem,” he said. “It’s crazy from a non-league to England but I’d like to think it’s the minimum, it should be normal for me, I can’t be happy, I have to continue and take from the people under me 20 years.”
