​[Getty Images]Seydou Traore has been waiting four hours for the phone call that will change his life. When it comes, he is the picture of calm. Next to him, his mum Zaia is anything but.Traore and his family are sitting backstage at the NFL Draft, where the 23-year-old Briton – who did not see his loved ones for five years after moving to the US to try to become an NFL player – has just been told his dream is coming true.Zaia, who is French-Algerian, lets out a ‘zaghrouta’ – a celebratory trilling sound that is traditional in north Africa – sheds tears of joy and has an out-of-body experience in a reaction that goes viral.”I was in a trance,” she tells BBC Sport. “I was like ‘oh my God, it’s happening, he’s done it’. That’s what I kept telling myself. It was pride and relief because it’s been years, and it was all worth it.”Of all the social media content around Seydou’s achievement in being the first graduate of England’s NFL Academy to complete his pathway to the NFL, it is the clip of his mum he keeps watching.He knows that she knows exactly what it has taken to defy the odds and become an NFL trailblazer.A pep talk from the great Travis Kelce was just a tiny part.Born and raised in south London, Traore was naturally athletic and tried many sports. He was playing football as a goalkeeper when he found American football at 16 with London Warriors.In 2019 he earned a place in the first intake at the NFL Academy, a development programme initially based in north London and now in Loughborough. The academy recruits from many sport backgrounds and American football experience is not necessary. Almost all draft prospects come through the American college system, which is why the academy was designed to help international players earn scholarships and prepare them for the NFL, mentally and physically.Each year about one million teenagers play American football at high school in the US. About 0.08% of them reach the NFL.One can therefore imagine how the odds are stacked against an international player like Traore.But he applied himself to his dream, getting up at 5am and working all day every day to get better, either at the academy or training.And the following summer, he had a breakthrough.Traore’s mum was in the kitchen when he came in and told her: “Some Americans want to speak with you. I’ve been talking to them for a while and, basically, I’m going to America.”Unknown to Zaia, her son had secured a spot at Florida high school Clearwater Academy. She told him: “I can’t afford to come and see you, you’ll be there by yourself.”For Traore’s sister Zeinab, four years his senior, the thought of him moving 4,500 miles from home was even more difficult.”He’s like my first child so I’m protective,” she says. “I was concerned at first. I thought it was too big a jump because he was still young.”Zeinab need not have worried.Traore had been laying the foundations for this move for some time, making videos to showcase his skills.One of them found its way to C