Jayce Olivero: from Abingdon United to facing Hazard with Gibraltar

Student and non-league defender on the thrill of turning out for his country and tears that greeted their first competitive win

If Craig David considers his 7 Days hectic, he clearly has never met Jayce Olivero. Take the international break last month when Olivero and his country tasted their first competitive win, against Armenia; Saturday 13 October 2018 will live with Gibraltar forever. By the Tuesday night they were celebrating another, against Liechtenstein, and by Wednesday afternoon, via Gatwick airport, he was back home in Headington. By 9am Thursday, Olivero, a third-year student at Oxford Brookes University, was sitting in a two-hour lecture. Two days later he helped Abingdon United beat ninth-tier Tuffley Rovers in the Hellenic League Challenge Cup.

Olivero, who had trials at Leicester and West Ham in his mid-teens, knows what is coming. “I always get that question,” he says, laughing. “I’ve been very fortunate to play against players like Hazard, Lukaku, Dzeko, Nani, all these great players … Kompany, Courtois, just a big list of brilliant players. Kevin De Bruyne.

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