From playing the 1986 World Cup in Mexico to falling into drugs and living on the street

It’s hard to imagine that person with long, unruly hair sitting down on the road and covered with a blanket while to begbe the same person who contested the Mexico soccer world cup 86. It is more than clear that fate does not always turn into millionaires to the players; But get into drugs can lead to ruin.

This is the story of Paul Jamesone of the players most decorated in Wales and Canadathat in addition to a World Cup participated in the Olympic Games. A story, for now, with an open ending.

Who is Paul Jones: World Cup and Olympic Games

Born in Cardiff on November 11, 1963, Paul John James attended at the same school that Gareth Bale would have attended and broke local records before he immigrated to Canada at the age of 16.

James owns his image today by wearing the wall of fame at Whitchurch High School alongside Geraint Thomas, Sam Warburton and Bale.

James would become one of the footballers Canada’s most decorated with 46 caps and a Concacaf winner’s medal to his creditdescribe the Daily Star.

Just speaking to this newspaper, James released a sentence as painful as it is true: “If you want to know what the look of utter contempt and disgust looks like, do it.”

And he developed: “I think that no one should be called drug addict or drug addict. The words evoke irrationality and a series of labels that see those exposed as criminal, scary, irrational, unreliablewhich should be avoided sick, loser, dirty, lazy, scum, unemployed. Can you see how disgusting that language is?”

When asked why he chooses to ask for money, James was blunt: “To find and rekindle the passion, enthusiasm and positivity I once had. And, on top of everything else, to find a way to connect with people“.

James admits he used cocaine for the first time in 1998and his addiction built over the next decade and he retired in 1993.

Hunger strike, solidarity and future

James maintained a six-year relationship with Ashley Kelly, whom he describes as an “extraordinary person”. “I loved her very much, but I couldn’t offer her anything,” she admits of the bond that ended before she began her recovery.

So his next step was take York University in Toronto to the Ontario Court of Human Rights for what he claims was a lack of duty of care, which they rejected, he spreads in local media.

That was how James did it several hunger strikes taking his fight to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2016 with his plight to get the historic drug use discrimination enshrined in law.

According to local publications, the former midfielder says he has grown closer to former team-mates since his return to the UK, wearing jeans donated by Queens Park Rangers manager Chris Ramsey.

Paul Peschisolido, a Canadian player and coach, also brought James to blanket and some food, as well as new slippers and a coat when he turned 59 in November.

He tried to establish himself in a sweeper job on the streets of Oxford, but an old knee injury forced him to sit out. Again his physical condition didn’t help. But James insists ask people not to feel sorry for him.

Paul James’ preaching, he acknowledges, is also about helping other people find their place. So it was that, in addition to asking people who see him on the street to use Google to find out who he is, he sent emails to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeauit’s at FIFA president Gianni Infantino.