Albert Adomah: The Walsall striker gives the BBC exclusive access to a day in his life

“I’m in trouble with my wife. Samuel broke the light somehow. I was supposed to be taking care of my father’s daycare, but I didn’t watch him.”

Aduma stands in his front room. He was kicking the ball around with his son who already seemed to have a great shot.

“It could be Adomah’s next project,” he says.

“If not, it might be Noah [his other son]. He’s a little like me. “I didn’t like football when I was young, so when I became a football player, everyone was surprised.”

Born in the United Kingdom, Adomah lived in Ghana until he was nine years old and began playing what he called cage style and street football.

Upon his return to England, he played men’s football from the age of 15 in Sunday leagues, at amateur and semi-professional level before turning professional with Barnet, scoring on his Football League debut, aged 19, in January 2008.

Talking in the car on the way to his children’s school, Albert says he will never take being a father for granted.

“When I was at QPR, I lived away from them all for four seasons.

“In any walk of life, being away from your children as a parent is going to be tough. Nowadays, we are blessed with technology, you can do WhatsApp calls and video calls, but it’s not really the same.

“That’s why, when I left QPR, I told myself I wanted to find a club nearby, and Walsall happened to be the first to come for me.”

Living so close by, Adomah is something of a celebrity on the field.

“Some people come up to me and say: ‘How was the game?’ But they are all very respectful because they know I have children.”

“When I was young, I used to follow Manchester United because they were winning everything. I was a glory hunter, yeah, I’m not going to lie.”

“When I was 13, I started following my local team, Queens Park Rangers, for £1 a ticket. I also sold free tickets for money, as a side hustle.”