Sorba Thomas determined to complete rapid rise from non-league to Premier League

Huddersfield midfielder Sorba Thomas hopes to complete a remarkable journey this weekend by winning Premier League promotion.

If the Terriers beat Nottingham Forest in Sunday’s Sky Bet Championship play-off final, Thomas will have risen from non-league football to the top flight in the space of 16 months.

The former Boreham Wood midfielder said: “I always believed. When you look at the success stories of Jamie Vardy, Michel Antonio, Tyrone Mings, who came from non-league, you have to always believe.

“I thought my time would come. Huddersfield took the risk, taking me from there and I’m repaying them by hopefully helping them into the Premier League.”

His meteoric ascent might not end there. Since being fast-tracked into Carlos Corberan’s first-team line-up after arriving at Huddersfield in January 2021, the 23-year-old has won three senior Wales caps.

His fairy-tale climb to the top could end at the World Cup in Qatar, with Wales set to play Ukraine or Scotland in their play-off final in Cardiff on June 5.

When Thomas was released by West Ham aged 16, he was ready to quit the game and threw his football boots in the bin.

He then sold boots as a shop assistant and worked as a scaffolder, but it was not long before he was compelled to pursue his dreams.

“When I first went to Boreham Wood I was working at JD Sports in Oxford Circus, I was there for a year. I did not like that at all,” he said.

“You get all different types of customers and in your head you’re thinking ‘I really need to make it as a footballer, I can’t do this every week’.

“There was a little football floor upstairs and soon as they found out I played they sent me there.

I was thinking 'I really need to make it as a footballer, I can’t do this every week'-