Even when Sorba Thomas’s working day was spent either putting up scaffolding for 12 exhausting hours or selling football boots in a flagship London sports store, he never stopped believing.
His dream to be a top-level footballer would one day become reality. And anyone who got in his way — such as the time late in 2020, when a bid from Charlton Athletic of League One was turned down by Thomas’s then club, non-League Boreham Wood — would soon hear about it.
“Sorba has always been extremely driven,” Luke Garrard, the National League club’s manager since 2015, tells The Athletic. “When Charlton came in for him and we turned the offer down, he wasn’t happy at all and had plenty to say.
“The chairman (Danny Hunter) told Sorba to trust him and that the club had his best interests at heart. Which we did. He (Thomas) was assuming they were the only club interested.
“Next minute, Huddersfield (playing one rung higher than Charlton in the Championship) came in and the kid hasn’t looked back. He could be a Premier League player next season.”
Depending on how the next nine days pan out, taking on his beloved Liverpool and the rest of English football’s elite in Huddersfield colours might not be the only big thing to look forward to next season.
Having qualified to play for Wales through Newport-born mum Gail and made his debut last October, Thomas has been named in Rob Page’s squad for their upcoming World Cup play-off final. Get past the winners of Scotland versus Ukraine in Cardiff next Sunday and Wales will be off to Qatar — their first World Cup since 1958 and only second ever.
Quite the turnaround for a player whose rejection by West Ham at age 15 led to his boots and shinpads being tossed angrily in the bin.
“Everyone at the club is so pleased for him,” adds Garrard, who will be part of a 20-strong party from Boreham Wood making the short journey to Wembley to cheer Thomas and Huddersfield on in Sunday’s Championship play-offs final.
“He is the prodigal son, one of our own. We call him ‘our pin-up boy’ — a kid who came from a high rise in Barking (east London).
“Now, that is not me belittling his upbringing. I came from a council estate in Barnet (north London). So, I am not talking from my ivory tower or anything like that.
“What I mean is Sorba has had to earn everything he has achieved. And he’s done that by being so driven.”
When Huddersfield beat Reading in August, Thomas contributed a goal and two assists. It was a third successive victory for Carlos Corberan’s side inside 11 days, and that meant the players could look forward to a healthy bonus in their monthly pay packets.
Having been used only sparingly in his first few months at the John Smith’s Stadium following that January 2021 move north to Yorkshire from fifth-tier Boreham Wood, Thomas wasn’t too au fait with how the Championship club’s bonus scheme worked.
So, after overhearing in the dressing room the size of the payment on offer for a win, Thomas turned to team-mate Harry Toffolo and asked, “Do we have to share?”
Toffolo initially thought his team-mate was on a wind-up. But, no, he was serious.
“Is the payment split 18 ways?”
“That’s your win bonus,” offered the left-back by way of clarification, “and everyone gets the win bonus.”
Thomas didn’t stop smiling for hours. Neither did Toffolo, who couldn’t help but be charmed by the humble, down-to-earth nature of his colleague.
Cameron Mawer, Thomas’ academy coach at Boreham Wood, remembers that same endearing nature off the pitch. He also recalls that intense drive on it to succeed.
“Sorba had an absolute belief in his own ability right from day one,” says the 35-year-old, now assistant manager at north London’s Hendon FC who play in the seventh tier of English football. “I remember his first-team debut at Maidenhead. He came off the bench but had wanted to start. I was saying, ‘But that was your debut, it was huge’.
“He wasn’t the easiest to manage at times. Always felt he should be at a higher level. But, where a lot of boys have that same confidence, they are not prepared to go that extra mile to back it up. Sorba did.
“First onto the astro (pitch) at training, last off it. He didn’t want to be a footballer, he had to be a footballer. It is brilliant to see how he has developed. Not just his football but as a man, too.
“He’s grown from a 16-year-old boy who was very immature and reacted badly to situations he didn’t like to a really level-headed young man. I watch him do interviews now on TV and he’s like a different lad.”
Those new-found communication skills were put to the test this week.
Thomas was a man in demand at Huddersfield’s pre-Wembley press day. More journalists requested an interview with the 23-year-old than even head coach Carlos Corberan. Thomas revelled in the attention, offering up soundbite after soundbite for the microphones.
Amongst other things, I asked Wales new boy @SorbaThomas whether he was gutted that Gareth Bale was missing from his first squad…
P.s. I love him already pic.twitter.com/oOMHYrg781
What’s it like playing with Gareth Bale for Wales? “I pinch myself. These are people who I played as on FIFA, and now I’m a team-mate.”
How nervous will your mum be at Wembley? “Give her a vodka and she’ll be all right.”
Who would play you in a film of your life? “Will Smith.”
Amid the quips, there was also a serious message. Not least concerning those days working as both a scaffolder and as a sales assistant for JD Sports in their Oxford Circus store in the heart of London to pay the bills when playing part-time at Boreham Wood.
“They helped me grow as a person,” he says. “I would never take back anything in terms of the route I went down. Even the days when you can’t hold any more (scaffold) poles and yet you have to fit one more on. My drive comes from those cold days on the scaffolding. I needed to make it as a footballer.”
As many Championship defences have discovered to their cost, that fire in the belly has helped Thomas enjoy a remarkable breakthrough season.
Only Fulham’s Harry Wilson — who, of course, had the prolific Aleksandar Mitrovic to aim at — and West Bromwich Albion new signing John Swift, then of Reading, managed more assists in the second division this season than Thomas’ dozen. He stands alone in terms of assists from set-plays, too, with eight.
His development has been no accident. Having brought Thomas north initially to play primarily for their B-team, Huddersfield put their new signing on a detailed individual development programme.
As part of this plan, he was allocated a dedicated nutritionist, conditioner and even psychologist to help cope with stepping up four levels. Out went the pizzas and eating late at nights, while hours in the gym helped to gradually change his body shape.
To make sure he’d be ready for the rigours of the Championship come the start of the season last August, Thomas then reported back for pre-season two weeks before his team-mates did.
For Garrard, the Boreham Wood manager, watching this transformation from afar — though the pair speak every few days on the phone — took him back to their days together.
“Sorba came into the first team in the year we reached Wembley,” says the 36-year-old of the 2017-18 campaign that ended with the Hertfordshire club losing 2-1 to Tranmere Rovers in the National League play-off final.
“He came on for the final few minutes, which is pretty much how it was for him that season. His best position was probably on the left of a front three but we played 3-5-2.
“The following pre-season, he came back like a man possessed. Thick set, he’d developed these quads. He absolutely ran pre-season. I’m thinking, ‘Wow, this kid ain’t just turning up to be one of the numbers, he wants a shirt’.
“There were a lot more games that season, mainly at left wing-back. I still felt he needed a bit of moulding. He’d always been confident. Right back to when I was in charge of the academy’s elite squad.
September 2020: Preparing for a season in non-league with Boreham Wood ⚪️
September 2021: Lighting up the Championship with Huddersfield Town 🔵
Sorba Thomas 👏#CCP | #HTAFC pic.twitter.com/mcE62Uc8EJ
— The Championship Chat Podcast (@Champchatpod24) September 8, 2021
“Sorba was based at another site but would catch a bus to where we trained and stand near the fence, saying, ‘Luke, I am going to be in the elite squad’. I told him to keep working hard.
“Later, when I became first-team manager, he started doing the same thing. Coming to watch us train and telling me he was going to be in the first team. So, confidence was never a problem.
“But in other areas, he maybe needed a bit more. Which is where what we call the ‘ADD Factor’ came in. Attitude, Discipline and Desire. He was lacking that slightly.
“As part of ADD — and this was the chairman’s idea — we got him to do a bit of coaching at the academy. That was alongside playing for the first team. He was one of our own and had come through the system, so the young lads looked up to him.
“Just as importantly, it really helped his own development. Suddenly, he’s learning how to drop people (from the team) and explain the reasons why they are not playing.”
Garrard also worked on Thomas’ game, challenging him to step outside what had become something of a comfort zone.
“A few months before he got the Huddersfield move,” Garrard adds, “I pulled him to one side when we were having breakfast, asking him to give me two minutes.
“I said, ‘I’m going to change your position and play you through the middle — either in the (number) 10 or up top’. He pulled this face straight away, so I asked what was up. He didn’t want to play there.
“So, I explained how he needed to have more strings to his bow. How if anyone came to watch him, he’d tick a lot of boxes. But goals and assists, he was failing on.
“Now, look at him for Huddersfield. He plays in a variety of positions, including through the middle the last three or four games. And his assists are off the scale.”
An ability to take corners and free kicks with both feet was one of the first things Huddersfield’s scouts noticed about Thomas. This skill was no accident, according to his former academy coach.
“Sorbs was a right-footed boy when he first came to us,” says Mawer. “But he worked so hard on his left foot. Playing down the left, he wanted to be able to vary things up, either cutting in on his right or going down the outside to use his left.
“That’s how he ended up training on his own after sessions had finished. Just to develop that side of his game. Same with set pieces. Making them very flat and easy to attack for his team-mates.”
Those dead-ball skills could prove the difference against Nottingham Forest at Wembley tomorrow. They certainly helped Boreham Wood’s academy in their quest for silverware, as two National League Cup successes when Thomas was in the team illustrates.
It is, though, the one that got away that invariably crops up when he speaks to his former coach.
“We were 3-1 up against Dartford in the under-19s final,” says Mawer. “Sorba had been magnificent, but we were coming under a bit of pressure so I took the decision to take him off.
“Long story short, we drew 3-3 and lost on penalties. He’s never let me forget that.
“With hindsight, it was the wrong decision. His attacking threat was the reason we were in front.”
Huddersfield’s 35,000-plus legion of fans inside Wembley will be looking to Thomas for the attacking spark that can clinch Premier League promotion. According to his former manager, that pressure won’t weigh heavy.
“Nothing fazes the kid,” says Garrard. “He could play in an international, like he did against the Czech Republic earlier this season, and it won’t be any different to him to kicking a ball about with his mates in Barking. That’s just him.”
(Top photo: William Early/Getty Images)