Local soccer prodigy recovers from injury in preparation for Spanish trial
His trial is only a handful of months away, and he still needs tens of thousands of rands.
Nineteen year-old Daiyaan Esthorpe has been playing soccer for as long as he can remember, and after an ACL injury put him on the sidelines for two years, he’s back on a mission.
Daiyaan was born at the Garden City Clinic in 2000, and grew up in Florida, attending four different school throughout his primary and high school careers. His first memory with a soccer ball at his feet comes from when he was three years old, playing at Wits Juniors, whom he played for until he started playing for Florida Albion Football Club when he was six.
He would play for Florida Albion until he was 11, when he made the move to FC Palmeros, where he played for three years before he had to miss a year of soccer due to contracting pemphigus, a rare skin disease characterised by blistering of your skin and mucous membranes.
However, he fought back from that and returned to football at the age of 15, and then played for the Liverpool Academy of South Africa when he was 16, before he suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury which saw him miss out on soccer for another two years before he could return to the pitch in Florida Albion colours earlier this year.
Still playing for Florida Albion, he currently plays in the midfield and possesses the ability to take any midfield position, but he did mention that he prefers to play as a central attacking midfielder or right winger.
Even though Daiyaan only returned from injury earlier this year, he is back with a bang as a man on a mission as he has a trial in Spain to possibly play in the Spanish Tercera División which is the fourth tier in the Spanish football pyramid, and is the league in which many a La Liga team’s reserve sides take part.
Daiyaan’s trial is set for August/ September, and to simply get to the trial he needs to raise R60 000 to cover all of his costs. Thus far, Daiyaan is just shy of R10 000, but he needs a lot more if his dream of playing professional football is to come true.
You can find Daiyaan’s crowdfunding campaign at https://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/daiyaan-easthorpe.
