BORN and raised in Tottenham as an Arsenal fan who dreamt of emulating Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry, Iliess Macani’s journey to Bradford has been a curious one.

As a promising young footballer, he spent time in the junior ranks at Leyton Orient, Arsenal, Spurs and QPR before turning his attention to rugby league.

Having begun at London Skolars before making his name in Super League with London Broncos, the next chapter in his life is about to begin at the Bulls.

After his father moved to the UK from Congo, Macani grew up in Tottenham, a notoriously tough district of north London often synonymous with gangs, guns and knife crime.

There were riots there in 2011 and the 22-year-old winger said: “I grew up about five or ten minutes from White Hart Lane.

“It was pretty tough and in the early 2000s there was quite a bit of gun and knife crime in London.

“But I had a good childhood and tried to stay away from gangs and things like that because I’ve always been sport-orientated.

“My parents taught me the importance of my education and that being out on the streets wouldn’t do me much good.

“You always have a few friends who get drawn into the street crime but a lot of them are doing much better now.”

Indeed, it was football that took up much of Macani’s spare time during his formative years.

He recalled with a smile: “Football was always my dream and I wanted to be professional footballer.

“I grew up following Arsenal – I hate Tottenham and it’s a huge rivalry.

“I was a right-back or central midfielder and guys like Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira were my heroes.

“I’ve got two older brothers and I started playing with them in the park.

“I got signed by Leyton Orient’s under-nines and then joined Arsenal at under-13s.

“I went to Tottenham on a two-month trial, which probably wasn’t the best decision as it didn’t work out.

“But from Tottenham I went to QPR, so I’ve been about.

“At QPR, I was 15 and it became a bit too much to juggle it with education so I stopped playing for a bit.

“It would take me a couple of hours to get to training after school and I wouldn’t get back home until 11 or 12 o’clock at night.

“I would then have to do homework, so it became too much.”

Around this time, Macani was studying for his GCSEs and his school held a rugby tournament.

They were a player short and Macani, blessed with natural speed and athleticism, not only made up the numbers.

In fact, he ended up top-scorer and was signed by London Skolars.

Not that rugby league was a sport he knew much, if anything, about at the time.

“I had no idea about any of the rules of rugby league and it was definitely a case of just learning on the field,” said Macani.

“I managed to get by and I then went on a trial at London Broncos in the under-18s.

“I joined them after that trial and eventually went full-time, while I also completed my A-Levels in economics, IT and French.

“I wanted to go to university to study economics but my year was the year when tuition fees went up. I thought it might be wise to pursue my rugby career.”

Macani made his first-team debut for the Broncos on August 9, 2013 in a Super League clash against St Helens and got on the scoresheet.

He went on to make over 50 appearances as one of many home-grown players to come through the ranks at London in recent seasons.

But earlier this year he felt the time for a new challenge had come and he liked what he heard from Bradford head coach and fellow Gunners fan Rohan Smith.

“Rohan and I have been talking about Arsenal,” revealed Macani.

“Every now and then, I’ll go and watch them when I can get tickets. I hope Arsenal can win the Premier League title this season – but we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves.

“It was a boyhood dream come true for me to be there and I was there for a year and a half.

“I loved going in every day and Benik Afobe was the year above me.

“I got released by Arsenal and it was tough but they made their reasons pretty clear why and it was understandable.”

Macani turns 23 in December and believes he has much still to achieve at the highest level in rugby league.

He has not come to Bradford to tread water as he declared: “I played two games in 2013 and most of the games in 2014, so I’ve had quite a big taste of Super League.

“Once you’ve had a taste, it makes you more determined to get back there again. I’ve got a lot of drive to accomplish a lot more in my career.”