He played regularly in front of 34,000 fans at Manchester City's Maine Road ground - millions more when the matches were broadcast live - and is comfortable being in the spotlight.

But speaking in front of several students at CedarBridge Academy this week proved a test of Shaun Goater's composure. He admitted to the more than 50 students that “this is more daunting than playing in front of 30,000”.

Not one to shirk a challenge though, he took it on.

“No matter what experience we go through, whether good or bad, we learn from it and I will certainly learn from this experience of sitting here and talking to 50 or 60 of you,” Goater told the students as they got to see that even stars are still human.

“If you remember anything, you can remember this experience. It is not comfortable for me, but I will certainly improve as a person in terms of doing this in the future. In our lives we can either stay in the comfort zone or we can do things like this. This is certainly out of my comfort zone, but I am willing to take on this challenge to better myself.”

The Bermudian hero, back home from the UK for his Grassroot Soccer Festival which kicks off next week, shared his experiences as a professional footballer in one of the most competitive leagues in the world. He challenged the students to set goals and be committed to whatever they wanted to achieve.

XL Capital Ltd. is the primary sponsor of the Grassroot Soccer Festival and XL President and CEO Brian O'Hara visited the school with Goater and told the students that the player “embodies a lot of what we view XL as...born and bred in Bermuda but now performing on the global stage”.

He added: “We know what it takes to be a performer on a global level - hard work, dedication, perseverance and risk-taking that Shaun has taken to put himself at the top of the sport. It is something we can all be proud of in Bermuda.”

The obstacles Goater has faced and overcome in a 15-year professional career in England proved an important life lesson to the students who wanted to know more about the life of Bermuda's most celebrated athlete.

“When I was 17, very much around the ages that you are now, I was at Whitney Institute and contemplating what I wanted to do as a career,” he told the students.

“Football was my dream and everything was geared around football. I wanted to use football to get me everything that I wanted.”

Goater went to Columbia High School in New Jersey to prepare for his SATs (Scholastic Aptitude Tests) and as the coach there had a brother who coached at a University in North Carolina, plans were in place to go there on a scholarship. Goater made the decision to come home for the Thanksgiving holiday that year and it proved to be a trip that would change his life!

While here, the North Village teenager was invited to play in a match which preceded a tour match at Somerset involving Manchester United, the world's biggest club. United's manager Alex Ferguson watched that game and saw something in the teenager that piqued his interest and he followed up with an invitation to trials. The rest, as they say, is history, and Goater never did get to North Carolina.

“Once I agreed to the trial with United I was forfeiting my scholarship as you are deemed to be a professional,” Goater said on the Manchester City website (mcfc.co.uk) which is running a series of articles on him this week as part of Shaun Goater Week.

However, it wasn't a path straight to the top as the Bermudian also never played for United's first team. Two years later, in 1990, he was transferred to Rotherham United in the lower divisions where he spent six seasons establishing himself.

“If you don't make a plan, then you fall into somebody else's plan,” he warned the students.

Goater spoke of the importance of setting realistic goals, having values, a mentor and being willing to make sacrifices. His mentor, he says, was Andrew Bascome, one of Bermuda's most exciting footballers in the 1980s.

He shared with the students how, when at Rotherham in the early 1990's, his take-home pay was less than what he would have made in Bermuda. Nowadays he is a top paid striker with Manchester City - until such time as another club signs him - but he admits it hasn't been an easy road for him.

“In training we used to run until we literally threw up,” he revealed.

“That was the time when I used to think to myself, ‘I don't love football this much'. At some time in your lives you will get to the point where the question will be asked ‘how much do you really want this?'. If it is number one on your list you are not going to let it go.

“That was the time when those questions were asked of me. And I can tell you I wasn't getting paid a lot of money. I was getting less when I was at Rotherham than when I was in Bermuda, but I didn't want to come back to Bermuda having been a failure.

“When I was Rotherham they wanted to sell me for ?15,000 to Chesterfield, which isn't a lot of money. They didn't think I was good enough, but that was a changing point for me because I was determined to show that I can play at the top level.”

The footballer reminded the students that if they enjoy what they do in their careers, it would not seem like work.

“How much do you make a year?”, was the first question from a student when the footballer welcomed questions.

“I can tell you when I was at Rotherham I made ?132 (roughly $200 a week), so I was making more here in Bermuda,” he replied.

Goater never discusses his salary, but it is safe to say he is making thousands of pounds a week as a Premier Division player.

Another student wanted to know if he had any regrets playing for Manchester City, to which the player answered no.

“It was a great challenge, I started out when the fans didn't like me at all,” said Goater, who moved from Bristol City to Manchester City in 1998 after two years in Bristol.

“They (Manchester City fans) used to boo me if I tackled somebody and used to shout to the referee ‘off, off, off,' meaning send me off. That was a time (1998) when I used to ask ‘how much do I want this?'”

Teacher Ellen Kate Horton related an experience when she went to Manchester last year and saw City fans with Goater's name tattooed on their bodies.

“There are one or two fans who have my name tattooed on their backs and I find it amazing to see that,” Goater admitted.

“There is one chap where each letter was five or six inches and he had the name Goater across his back and the number 10. In my decision to say I want to play football and I'm considering leaving Manchester City, he is somebody who came to my thoughts because he has my name across his back. They are very passionate.”

An hour later Goater visited his former primary school where walking the halls of Victor Scott brought back many happy memories of a young boy dreaming of being a professional footballer. The school motto “Look Up! Fight On! And Win!” sums up Goater's determination to succeed.

“I came to Victor Scott, Central as it was called many years ago, and this brings back a lot of memories,” said Goater.

“I spent a lot of time in that office for the wrong reasons and was getting in a bit of trouble. Do they still have the ditch over there? I used to go home wet many times from trying to jump across that or trying to get a football out of it.”

Goater recounted his days of playing with pride, for the school team and also for North Village, who trained across the road on the ‘desert'. He also remembers playing one season for Boulevard's juniors who still train on the school field.

“So a lot of my early education in football started very much where we are,” said the Bermudian who clearly hasn't forgotten his humble beginnings.

“I more or less lived on Marsh Folly and grew up on Friswell's Hill so this is my neighbourhood. I played for North Village up until 17 and then had the opportunity to have a trial and through the trial I was successful with Manchester United.

“It was a real challenge for me because I was leaving Bermuda, a warm, sunny climate and going over to England where it was very cold.”

One student, Ereico Outerbridge, waited more than two years to meet Goater and to tell him something that his teacher, Chevonne Furbert, said about him. Ms Furbert, one of the Island's top female footballers and a striker herself, is also a former classmate of Goater's at Whitney.

“She said she used to ‘shake' you (show him up on the field) when you were younger,” the student said, putting both Ms Furbert and Goater on the spot as the room broke out in laughter.

Goater replied: “In all honesty she is about the only girl who gave me a little ‘shake' and left me mesmerised. We attended school together and she used to get involved with playing against the guys and is one of the most talented girls on the Island.”

Goater urged the youngsters to hold on to their dreams, just as he always did.

“People used to say to me ‘you can't play professional, we don't have a professional league here', but I will say to you, no matter what your dream is don't let it go,” he encouraged the students.

“If you want it bad enough, you can achieve it. I'm obviously a prime example of that. There is a professional league in England and nobody ever thought I would be over there playing, apart from myself.”

He admits, too, that he came from a modest background, but one of the Christmas presents he most treasured was not the bike he received one year.

“I didn't get everything I wanted, but one of the most important things that I did get from my mother was a football and football boots and kit,” he recalled.

“In all my years that is the only thing I really remember receiving apart from a bike one Christmas. I didn't get everything that I wanted and I was restricted to what I could have. That was good for my upbringing and discipline.”

Towards the end of the visit the students sang, for him, their school song and also shared the school's daily affirmation...the three D's:

“I am disciplined, determined and destined for greatness...and so are you,” they stated.

The former Victor Scott student is a living example of what can be achieved when the three D's are applied!