In the first two books of Football Academy, Tomasz Bobik gets a lot of trouble from the team captain, Ryan Flynn.

Mainly because he is Polish and Ryan uses that to bully him.

But the Ryan-Tomasz trouble takes an unexpected twist, when United’s under twelve’s are invited to play in an international tournament against Real Madrid and AC Milan. In Poland!

Then, when Ryan is watching his team mates being bullied for being English, he sees Tomasz come to the rescue, and he is forced to change his ways.

Player Profile

Name: Tomasz Bobik

Age: 11

Position: goal keeper

Best friend on team: Jake

Supports: Legia Warsaw

Was Tomasz based on anyone you know?

Yes. A boy I met in Leeds. He had just moved to England and was struggling to fit in. His dad brought him to see me do a talk at Armley Library. The dad told me he’d been bullied at school. Just because he was Polish. He was a lovely lad and I wanted to put his story into a book.

Did you get bullied at school?

A bit. When I was fourteen. Two lads who were always bored in class used to spit on me in the class. The teacher knew, but did nothing. It was in set four in Physics. I was too scared to take them on, so I just worked really hard at Physics and got promoted to set two.

Did you tell anyone?

No. I wish I had. I think if it was now the teachers would have done more. If it was happening today I’d tell them. But bullies never think you’ll have the nerve to do that.

Read the first chapter ofThe Real Thing here.