The Best Kept Secret
The Journey, Failures, Growth, and Lessons of a Soccer Player, and How He Reached His Full Potential
by Stephen Olasumbo Ademolu

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Have you ever been told you are too small to play a sport? Have you ever not been selected for a team? Have you been doubted by others who told you to give up? Stephen has too! In The Best Kept Secret, Former Canadian Men’s National Team player and professional soccer player Stephen Ademolu walks us through his incredible journey. Hailing from a small city, Stephen did the unimaginable, becoming a pro soccer player, quieting anyone who doubted him. Through his life story, this book shows readers the efforts and sacrifices it took for Stephen to earn two full-ride athletic scholarships and to make it as a professional soccer player. In both moving and funny anecdotes, Stephen takes readers on an emotional roller coaster. His personal sacrifices, mistakes, hard work, and some risktaking opened doors and opportunities. In his own inimitable style, Stephen recalls every struggle, adventure, pain, and downfall in his career. Through his journey, Stephen explains how everything in life comes full. Engaging, endearing, and insightful, this book is where Stephen comes to terms with how his choices as a youth, and later as an adult, resulted in mixed results: devastating disappointments and soaring successes! This book is both a memoir and a guide for non athletes, student athletes, future pros, and professional athletes on the importance of believing in yourself.

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Stephen Ademolu is from the small city of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. As a youth soccer player, he was often overlooked and always had to work twice as hard for everything, but through perseverance and focusing on being the best player on the field, he found international success. Stephen received two full-ride scholarships to play soccer at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and the University of Cleveland State. He went on to play for the Under-23 Canadian Olympic team and the Canada men’s national team. His professional career took off from there. Truly a story of SMALL CITY… BIG DREAMS! This is Stephen’s first book.

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Stephen Olasumbo Ademolu