Sonny Pike was tipped to become the next Diego Maradona as a young boy who appeared to be destined for greatness.At just 14 years old, he had his legs insured for £1million and had some of Europe’s biggest clubs looking to sign him.Pike was considered a rising superstar as a child and was tipped to emulate MaradonaYouTubeHowever, things didn’t go the way they seemed to be planned for Pike, as he went on to never play a single professional game.During the 1990s, a young Pike garnered huge attention for his incredible performances while playing for local side Enfield FC, which saw him compared to Maradona and George Best.And he was quickly thrust into major publicity, as his father pushed for him to appear on TV shows and adverts as a youngster.He featured in a McDonald’s ad, spoke on TV shows, was sponsored by Coca-Cola and worked with agents, all in his very early years. This huge reputation in the UK led to interest coming from Manchester United, Tottenham, Ipswich, Norwich and more.Pike, aged 12 at the time, was attracting interest from overseas too, and Dutch giants Ajax offered him a trial at the club. That would be a moment that all aspiring footballers dreamed of, and it was no different for Pike at the time.He said, via the Mirror: “All of the players from my bedroom wall walked out before my very eyes. “There were the De Boer brothers, Jari Litmanen, Nwankwo Kanu, Edgar Davids, Patrick Kluivert, Clarence Seedorf, Marc Overmars, Edwin van der Sar and the captain, Danny Blind. No wonder they were the best team in the world at that time.”“I’d never been more sure that I was going to make it as a professional footballer,” he later added. “All I had to do was shoot for the stars.”Pike had a trial with Ajax and had European giants looking to sign himYouTubeHe wouldn’t be offered a contract by Ajax though, returning to the UK after playing in two games for their youth side.Throughout that trip, such was the interest in him that Pike, cameras from popular TV show Blue Peter followed him around.Pike said to The Sun: “I wasn’t too worried about the cameras being there at that age, because from the ages of 10 to 12-years-old I had got used to that then.“It was only towards about 14-years-old onwards that it got too much for me and I struggled to concentrate on my football.”At 14, Pike had his legs insured for £1million and that led to horrible backlash from his opposition’s parents during games.He explained: “Because I had long hair, they used to say, ‘he’s only a girl, break his legs.’ Not just that, off the pitch and at school, I got different treatment that didn’t help me either.”Things sadly started crumbling down for Pike after he featured in a documentaryGetty‘It was just too much’In 1996, Pike signed for Leyton Orient following his unsuccessful trial at Ajax and that is where his story started to crash down.While at Orient, his father worked with a journalist and agreed to sign him up for a documentary named ‘Coaching and Poaching’. But despite thinking the documentary was going to be about him, it was actually being filmed to expose a poaching scandal.He featured for Chelsea, but by doing so, through no fault of his own, was caught out for breaking FA rules on tapping up.After an inquiry, Pike was banned from football for a year, and he missed out on training with multiple other clubs, with his relationship with his father broken after the ordeal too.On what it was like during that time, he revealed to The Sun: “After watching that documentary, I came out of the pub and I stood in the middle of the main road in Edmonton, actually on a roundabout.Pike fell into a depression and left football behind – but he now coaches other young players after his terrible experienceGetty“There’s cars just whizzing around me and I just felt that’s what my head was getting like. ‘This is too much, enough of this now.’”Pike would eventually get back into football after his ban, being given a chance by Crystal Palace, which didn’t last long.His love for the game had gone – and at just 16, he’d had enough.He admitted: “I pretty much had a mental breakdown on the pitch. I came on for 15 minutes, I was given the opportunity and I just walked off. The pressure of me going on, it was just too much. “I looked at the coach and just walked off. I broke down and I knew it was all over from then.”Pike went on to spend two years at Stevenage until he was 18, before completely giving up football for good – having not played a single professional game at senior level.He battled with depression before turning his life around and leaving the sport behind, becoming a taxi driver in London and also starting to coach young players and support their fledgling careers.On top of that, he also wrote a book called ‘My Story: The Greatest Footballer That Never Was’ to reveal more about his journey.