The story could be called 'How to collect cousins', 'My return home' or 'What sport can actually mean'. It could even borrow its title from popular music, as John Gbenda-Charles will attest that in New Zealand he was the black child and then later, in Sierra Leone, the white athlete. But no matter the title, the story would be the same. It's selecting the highlight that becomes difficult.
Was it when a young cousin in Kono stuck by his side and offered to bodyguard his older cousin, who is now a Leone Star?
Was it when Gbenda-Charles first received a letter asking him to play for Sierra Leone as the country attempted to qualify for the 2010 World Cup? Or is the highlight still to come, when Gbenda-Charles, 29, eventually opens a school that specialises in teaching sports but focuses on academics? It will be named after his mother.
Ask a child what it means to flee and he probably has no idea. But a few months before civil war broke out in Sierra Leone, his parents decided their mother, Judith, would leave with Gbenda-Charles and his sister, Lucy, while the two eldest sons, Steven and Andrew, would stay behind with their father, Sahr.
From age nine, Gbenda-Charles spent the rest of his childhood in his mother's native New Zealand, going to school, playing rugby and soccer. When he said goodbye to Kono, it was the last time he would see his father, who was killed in the war.
In 2002 - after finishing school, after a car accident ended his career with English side Crystal Palace, and after the birth of his now eight-year-old daughter - Gbenda-Charles went to Kono with his older brother to take care of his father's burial.
