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Many of the world’s leading figures are Harvard graduates – but Patrick Bamford has no regrets about snubbing the Ivy League to pursue his dream of the Premier League.
The Leeds striker was offered a football scholarship to study business by Harvard a decade ago when he was taking his A-levels at private school.
His goal was to make it to the top flight and he turned down the prestigious Ivy League university to sign his first professional contract with Nottingham Forest in 2011.
A year later Bamford joined Chelsea and is now banging the goals in with Leeds in the top flight.
“I was at the point where all my mates at school were filling in their UCAS applications for university and the teachers were saying I had to do the same just in case,” he told the Official Leeds United Podcast.
“I didn’t want to go to uni, my mind was set on football. I thought if I’m going to go to uni, I want to play football.
“The States was the only real option where it would be possible. I put some feelers out and the first university we got in touch with was in Connecticut. As soon as they came back, others began sniffing about.
"That’s when Harvard came in.
“It sounds strange to say that Harvard was only ever a back-up, I was so determined to make it at football that it was on the back burner.
“Once I signed professionally it would no longer be an option so it came down to ‘you’ve been offered a professional contract, so do you sign that or go to uni in America?’ For me there was only one option.”
