BBCSakariya Abdi Hassan was playing for non-league side AFC Sudbury when he got an unexpected phone call.
It was an invitation to play for Somalia’s national team.
Football-mad Sakariya, known as Sak, came to England from the Netherlands at age seven and bounced around academies including Leyton Orient, QPR and Tottenham.
He currently plays for Wealdstone in the National League, and last season joined Baller League, the new six-a-side tournament fronted by YouTuber KSI.
But representing his country was something he’d never imagined.
“I didn’t think it was possible because of the level I was playing at,” he tells BBC Newsbeat.
“But then I got the call.”
Since then he has played for the Ocean Stars, as the team is known, 10 times and scored twice.
Currently they are ranked 200th in the world – which makes them the third lowest- ranked team from Africa.
They haven’t won a game in six years and are also bottom of their World Cup qualification group.
Sak admits there’s still a long way to go, but his outlook is optimistic.
“We’re doing a lot better than we were ten years ago, we’re not getting thumped 5-0, 6-0 any more,” he says.
“When I first played for Somalia, we were only flying out once every year, and now we’re flying out every international break.
“It’s getting better but we need to carry it on.”
Getty ImagesSomalia has been affected by civil war since 2009, and the last time the Ocean Stars played at their home stadium in capital Mogadishu was in 1986.
Sak says it would be a dream to play there.
“If we were to play at home it would be such a massive thing for us,” he says.
“When we normally play, we only get one or two hundred people coming to support us and we have to play in Djibouti and other places when playing at ‘home’.
“Having a full stadium supporting us, that would be amazing.”
Sak believes the team can reach The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), a tournament similar to the Euros with 24 national sides in the finals.
“Obviously we are far from winning it, but we can definitely get in it, within the next 10 years we can definitely qualify,” he says.
And he hopes to inspire some more homegrown talent.
“Football is massive in Somalia,” he says.
“Girls, boys, everyone plays it growing up and it’s the biggest sport in Somalia, everyone watches it.”
It’s not just fans back home, though. Britain has a large Somali community and whenever the national team plays, Sak says he feels the love coming from England.
“There’s so many watch-alongs, it’s unreal,” he says.
“When I scored for Somalia, my phone was blowing up. I couldn’t even go on it, the notifications were crazy. There’s nothing like the love the Somali community gives.”
Abshir Adan and Andreas Ali both play for Phoenix Next Gen, a Bristol-based Somali football team, and both are fans of Sak.
“It’s amazing, seeing someone who is from the same background,” says Andreas.
“Seeing someone who has made it to an international level will only inspire the younger generation.
“Were very proud of the boys, they make the whole community proud and it’s only a matter of time ’til we get some wins.”
And, if the team continues to improve, Abshir thinks it will lead more of the Somalian diaspora to play for the Ocean Stars.
“Now people from countries like Sweden, the UK and across the world are realising that Somalia is a team that they can play for,” he says.
“In ten years or so we will see plenty of Somali kids playing professional football in England, and hopefully playing for Somalia and Sak Hassan will be the trailblazer.”
Somalia may not have won a game for six years, but there have been a handful of draws.
One of the most memorable, a World Cup qualifier against Guinea, stands out to Sak because Borussia Dortmund striker Serhou Guirassy was in the opposing side.
“He scored a hat-trick against Barcelona, but he couldn’t score against Somalia,” says Sak.
Somalia will be hoping to repeat the feat, or go one better, when the teams meet again later for another qualifier.
“We would love to get a win, but a draw wouldn’t be a bad result for us,” says Sak.
