“Joe Hart [former England goalkeeper] was there,” Fordah said. But more so than the players, he was starstruck most by the environment.
“You look down at your shirt and you see the West Ham crest and you're like, ‘This is wild!’ I'm making save after save, and I honestly thought I'd just be there for a couple of days,” Fordah added. “But the manager of the under 23s said: ‘Can you come back tonight? Can you be with us long term?’”
Fordah ended up staying with West Ham for a year and a half. And although he didn't play in any competitive games, the time he spent training with the team proved invaluable. The experience validated so much of the rejection and uncertainty he’d faced.
A RETURN STATESIDE
Flash forward a year and Fordah was back living in Connecticut with his wife and her immediate family. He was still buzzing from his time at West Ham and ready to give a pro career in the States one final go. But after so much time apart, he was committed to staying close to his wife. He had a quick stint with Hartford Athletic and the New York Cosmos B.
“I'm 24 at this point. And, you know, I see that there is a new [USL] team in El Paso [Texas – over 2000 miles from his temporary home in Connecticut],” Fordah said. “So I get in contact with the manager and just tried to sell myself.”
After days of training in El Paso, near the border with Mexico, his opportunity finally came. Walking into the locker room he felt a special kind of energy as he sat at his locker. His teammates crowded around him silently.
“‘What’s going on here’?” he thought to himself before turning toward his locker.
“When I saw my name, that moment I knew: ‘this is happening’,” Fordah remembered.
His first professional game under contract was against Real Monarchs in 2019, after El Paso’s starting goalkeeper got injured. And his first bit of action came early on.
“The ball was crossed in and I caught it,” Fordah said. “It’s funny because I wasn’t nervous, you know, it was like I was always waiting.”
The game finished 0-0. “To keep a clean sheet in a professional league debut…That was honestly a special moment for me,” he said.
Fordah played three games over two seasons for El Paso before being released.
‘SOUNDS OF THE ROAD’
His next opportunity came from Loudoun United, in Leesburg, Virginia (another USL Championship club). His trial went well and his second professional contract came soon after. The 2020-2021 season was rough due to the pandemic. But Fordah proved himself enough to start for Loudoun.
He finished the USL Championship season third in saves (103) and was awarded Save of the Week numerous times.
After the season, he hoped to renew his contract. However, that day never came. The team was building a younger squad, and Fordah, at 28 years-old, didn’t fit the new model.
“The days went by, the weeks, the months,” said Fordah who was eventually let go midseason. “[After that] All I'm getting back is just ‘No, no, no, no.’ And it started to take a massive mental toll on me.”
Earlier this year, Fordah was contacted by long-time Western Mass’ head coach Federico Molinari. “They said they’re looking for a goalkeeper to play in the Open Cup for them…and so I said, ‘I’m actually in Indiana at the moment [training with Indy Eleven] but…if you want me to, I can do that.’”
