Learning support assistant Bradley Banda will need to get used to difficult students, but Barcelona striker Memphis Depay is not the typical class maverick.
Fortunately, the Gibraltar national team goalkeeper, as every good aspiring teacher should do, had done his homework on the former Manchester United forward.
“A couple of nights before the game, I was sat in my hotel room and I thought, just in case, I am going to have a look at Memphis Depay’s penalties,” 23-year-old shot stopper told Mirror Football.
“I was looking over them, and he is such a penalty specialist, he can go either side, down the middle, bottom left, bottom right; he is prolific at penalties.”
Banda had been given a baptism of fire by Gibraltar manager Julio Cesar Ribas, deployed him for his first international start for the Reds in a World Cup qualifier against the Netherlands.
With Louis Van Gaal’s side expectedly leading the minnows 1-0 through Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk; Inter Milan rock Stefan de Vrij headed onto the arm of Gibraltar’s Graeme Torilla, and was awarded a penalty after a VAR check.
However, while 31,583 pairs of eyes at the Stadion Feijenoord transfixed themselves onto the Russian, an astonishing piece of action was unfurling in the penalty area.
Banda recounted: “I noticed a trend that he liked to chip the ball a lot, so I went and had a word with him, and I said ‘Come on, let’s see it, chip me!’
“I thought these guys are a completely different level of professionalism; their standards are all the way up there, and it’s a completely different level.
“I thought ‘the only way I will be stopping this is if I try to level the playing field’ so I begged him to go down the middle. And in that last split second, I read his body position, I went, and then it happened.”
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Banda’s words appeared to have carved themselves a place into Depay’s mind, as the young shot-stopper read his mind, threw himself to his right-hand side, and punched the spot kick away to safety. Spines were tingling after the Netherlands supporters came to their feet and even began to chant Banda’s name after the save.
Unfortunately, as is the case when a nation whose initial talent pool was smaller than that of San Marino face a footballing colossus like Holland, Louis van Gaal’s side went on to score five more goals; Depay even got his revenge with a second penalty of the evening which he cooly converted.
However, Banda’s display against the Oranje was unforgettable, and he returned to Gibraltar as the talk of the match and the pride of a nation.
“They were all screaming my name like ‘Banda, Banda, Banda’, and it was really amazing to see this from opposition fans; it’s not something you often see in a football ground," he mused. "I also got a round of applause in the playground.
“I work in a special needs school as a learning support assistant, so I am at work from 8:45am to 3:15pm, normal school hours,” said Banda. “Most days I try to get into the gym at around 7am to do around an hour’s work before heading off to work. I get to work, and then after work I have to head over to Spain for training, as we are very limited for training facilities here in Gibraltar.
“We might have to get into an hour-long border queue to cross into the frontier, and we train around 20 minutes into Spain in a place called Casila. With my club we train around 5:30-7:30 and get home around 8pm, which is then my only free-time.
“I am basically working 7am to 8pm, but that’s the life of a semi-professional player in Gibraltar.”
Banda’s day-to-day life of juggling full-time work, gym, and football training, in a country whose footballing infrastructure and facilities, as a result of only being granted a full UEFA membership in 2013, are barely rooted into the rocky terrain.
The gulf between Gibraltar, whose total 33,691 population could almost fit into Wembley Stadium three times over, and that of a nation like the Netherlands is almost as large as the Rock of Gibraltar which dominates the view.
“When you compare that to the opposition we have to play against, who are full-time professionals, and their life is football, you just cannot compare it,” Banda added.
“I think the starting eleven in the back five was Jamie (Olivero) who worked in Telecommunications, our centre back was a customs board officer, Scott Wiseman and Jason Olivero are full-time professionals and our left-back was a prison guard. We have many players in the Military Defence Police, a fireman, a customs officer, but this is a difficult question as more and more of us are going full-time.”
Banda plies his trade in the Gibraltar national Leaguy, but did play for Team Solent, a Wessex division side affiliated to Solent University in Southampton. The side who were mostly made up of University students, competed in the fifth step of English football in a stadium which can only seat 100 people.
However, Banda’s journey is as inspirational as it is remarkable, unless one is off the possession of the same opinions as former England hero Gary Lineker.
After England stuck five goals past San Marino, officially the worst international side in the World, the Match of the Day host provoked more controversiality in one tweet than 100 matches between Gareth Southgate’s side and the minnows.
“Surely we’ve reached the stage where the lowest ranked nations should play among themselves to qualify for the right to play at this level. It’s become absurd,” he tweeted.
It was a condescending view unhelpfully reinforcing the regularly uttered around Europe ‘English arrogance’ jibe, the FA are working so hard to banish.
And it was also a view certainly not shared by Banda and the rest of his teammates.
“I don’t agree with this statement, as UEFA and FIFA have created competitions such as the Nations League, which enables the smaller nations to play against each other in a league system, and you go up the stages on merit – last year we won our Group," Banda said firmly.
“Coming from a {he lifts his arms up to mimic speech marks} smaller nation, we thrive on the opportunity to play against these players and big nations.
"These guys, their life is fully focussed on their football, whereas when it comes to us in Gibraltar and myself, I cannot think about football until I have finished my job at 3:15.
“Their life is football, but ours’ is football too, except we have other things that we have to worry about. We have other commitments, and in most circumstances our jobs do have to come first.”
While that debate will continue until Banda his entrusting with his own year groups, Banda and the rest of his international compatriots will juggle their extraordinary lifestyles with a huge smile on their face.
There is certainly something to be said of the constant challenges and extra handicaps the smaller nations endure in comparison with their stronger, more established counterparts.
But with present and future teachers like Banda, capable of reading the movements of some of the best players in the world, they have a future as solid and steady as the iconic Rock of Gibraltar itself.