What is destiny? A series of coincidences that lead to a chance encounter, the one that forges this destiny. That of Jack Nunn, a young man from the village of Winterbourne, north of Bristol, in England, may have changed this summer, during a tournament he was participating in in Italy, far from imagining that the opportunity to realize his lifelong ambition was about to reach out to him.
Just three months ago, Jack Nunn was combining his passion for football with studying business at SGS College in Filton, a suburb of Bristol, with the idea of a career other than football in the back of his mind. A few weeks later, he signed for Serie A club Cagliari and saw his life turned upside down in a whirlwind of emotions. “It still feels surreal,” he told Bristol Live last month.
Neglected by the professional clubs in his region, ignored by the English youth academies, Jack Nunn played for Stoke Gifford United, in the Gloucestershire County League, the 11th tier of English football, far from the level to which this versatile midfielder aspired. His skills earned him trials at Bristol City (twice) and Exeter City at the age of 10, but neither of these trials proved conclusive.
Presented to Claudio Ranieri
Selected as part of a team bringing together the cream of what English schools in the category can produce and this in order to participate in the Roma Caput Mundi tournament which took place in March, Jack Nunn immediately proved worthy of interest, with Cagliari’s scouts identifying what the English were failing to detect in this young player.
From the first match, he had already caught the eye of Cagliari sporting director Nereo Bonato, who sent a scout to watch him in the next match, against a Greek team, reports Bristol Live. “He came up to me at half-time and said he was a scout from Cagliari and that he liked my game,” Jack Nunn recalled for the Bristol newspaper.
A visit to the Cagliari training ground, where he was introduced to Claudio Ranieri (former coach of the Sardinians, now retired), and two trial sessions later, including a match against the first team, Jack Nunn accepted the challenge and signed the contract of his life by committing to wear the Rossoblu jersey for the 2024-2025 season.
What can he expect now? Jack Nunn started the season in the Under-19s team with the aim of securing a regular place and keeping alive his dream of one day making it to the first team of a top club. The rest will come naturally. “I’ve never been obsessed with trying to get into a club. I’ve always thought that if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,” he told Bristol Live in August. At Cagliari, there are rumours that the club have great faith in his potential.
- RMC Sport
