Moses revels in dream achievements

At the start of the current season Victor Moses was a promising player for struggling English Premier League club Wigan. Now, just a few months later, the 22-year-old is playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world, can call himself an African champion and is looking forward to participating at the FIFA

Confederations Cup in Brazil. After a slow start to his international career, the athletic Chelsea forward was an inspirational attacking figure for Nigeria as they won the CAF Africa Cup of Nations last week by beating Burkina Faso 1-0 in the final.

“If anybody had told me that I would be playing for Chelsea and winning the Nations Cup by the beginning of this year, I would not have believed it. It is like a dream. But it has taken a lot of hard work and I have been working hard week in and week out, and at the end of the day everything came out for me in a positive way,” Moses told FIFA.com.

It’s been a dramatic rise to the top for Moses, who was born in Nigeria but was smuggled out after his missionary parents were killed in religious rioting. Raised by foster parents in south London, the youngster turned to football and joined Crystal Palace’s academy after being scouted at his local school. Always considered a potential star, Moses debuted for the Eagles as a 16-year-old and signed a four-year contract with the club, but after becoming a regular in the 2009/10 season he was signed during the January transfer window by Wigan. After a number of impressive performances for the Latics, he became a Chelsea target and after several offers had been rejected by Wigan, they finally accepted an offer right at the end of the transfer period in August last year – but not before Moses had played against his new club in the opening match of the Premier League season.

Moses was called up at youth level for England and played in all their youth teams. In 2007 he was the top scorer at the European Under-17 Championship and in the same year played in the FIFA U-17 World Cup. After failing to command a regular berth in the England under-21 side, he opted to play for the country of his parents, Nigeria. He later related his decision to journalists: “I played for England Under-16s, 17s, 18s, 19s, 20s and then 21s … then … I just decided to make the decision to play for Nigeria,” he said.