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LINVOY PRIMUS    Premiership Footballer

Born: 14 September 1973
Died: Still alive
Location: London, England

Linvoy was born and brought up in London. Hi parents had been brought up in the West Indies where church was a big part of the culture, so he was regularly taken along. “For me,” Linvoy said, “church was a cold unwelcoming place where you were told what you could or could not do.”

Church took a back seat when he joined a Sunday football club. By the time he was 13 Wimbledon, Luton and Charlton were showing an interest and invited Linvoy to train with them. At 14 he signed schoolboy forms at Charlton. He joined them as an apprentice and soon met Trishia. After a year they set up home together.

Linvoy recalls: “Once I had turned professional I felt ready to take up the life of a footballer – womanising, partying and good times. But none of that gave me satisfaction and then Trishia fell pregnant. My son Nathan’s arrival signalled an end to the partying.

Linvoy was released by Charlton at the end of his contract, aged 19, and a time at Barnet caused him to re-evaluate his attitude to the game. Off the pitch drinking didn’t help him find the spark that was missing in his life. He spent 3 years at Reading before signing a two year contract for manager Tony Pulis at Portsmouth. Linvoy takes up the story: “At Fratton Park I met Darren Moore, a player I had known from his days at Torquay. It wasn’t for nearly a season that I found out he was a born-again Christian, although I was aware that he read the Bible.”

“We went to church with some friends of Trishia’s. It bore no resemblance to the one I had known as a child. By the end of the first service I knew it felt right, that this was the real thing. I told Darren and he spoke to me about his experience of Jesus in his life. I knew this was ‘the real deal.’ Now we had new friends who were not just interested in football – people who took us for who we were and not what we were. We found the answers to a lot of key questions.”

Linvoy was an ever present for Portsmouth during the 2002-2003 promotion season, and voted the fans player of the year. He was one of Pompey’s best players in the 2004-2005 season. He continued to make his mark in Portsmouth’s back four. The 2006–07 season was the last injury-free season for Primus as a career threatening knee injury meant he would not make a single appearance the following season. Primus went out on loan to former club Charlton and made 10 appearances and one further appearance for Portsmouth before retiring through injury in December 2009.

Linvoy has started a charity called Faith & Football which takes football workshops into the community in Portsmouth and abroad to poverty struck nations. He walked the Great Wall of China to raise £100,000 for their cause. Other charitable causes he has been involved in are the Alpha course, a cinema advertisement about Christianity and the formation of a prayer group at Portsmouth. In 2007, he released his autobiography, titled "Transformed", which details his conversion to Christianity.

IN HIS OWN WORDS:

I never pray to win – just to do my best and that God will be with me – pleasing God and doing what is right is more important than winning, losing or drawing.”

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