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IT is not only Fulham players rallying behind trolled disabled footballer Rhys Porter. The 13-year-old became an internet sensation when stars from the Championship side ran to celebrate with him after going 1-0 up against Bristol City last Saturday. 
Rhys was born with cerebral palsy, a condition that affects muscle control and movement, but his dream has always been to play football just like his friendsCredit: Arthur Edwards / The Sun
Rhys Porter, 13, became an internet sensation when stars from the Championship side ran to celebrate with him after going 1-0 up against Bristol City last SaturdayCredit: Reuters
But what happened after the game was perhaps even more exciting for the youngster, who hit headlines after a TikTok video on him playing for his football team drew thousands of vile messages online.
His mum Kelly has told how a gang of “serious-looking” Fulham fans raced down the train to find him on the way home after the match.
She says: “They were the real hardcore fans that don’t wear any Fulham stuff. 
“They were carrying their plastic pints, banter in full flow. Suddenly, one of the guys tells everyone in the carriage that Rhys, ‘Is a legend’.
“He said the whole of Fulham’s Hammersmith End has got his back. Anyone picking on Rhys in the street is going to need to watch out. He’s one of the lads, wheelchair or not. 
“Then this bloke said, ‘If your mum can’t take you to football, I’m going to come and get you’.”
 At the family’s home in Hillingdon, Middlesex, Rhys breaks into a wide smile and says: “It was brilliant!” 

Kelly, 41, an aviation company HR worker, adds: “That probably meant as much to him as any of the many messages of support he’s had because that’s what he strives to be.
“He wants to be walking, he wants to go in the pub, he wants to go to the football and do things which he considers normal.
Loved the freedom
“That moment on the train shows his message is getting across — ‘I’m in a wheelchair but there is nothing different about me. I’m still a lad. I still like football, it’s just my legs aren’t working’. 
“And that is what he tried to say all along — ‘Why can’t I be included?’.”
 Rhys, an only child, was born with cerebral palsy, a condition that affects muscle control and movement. 
He was unable to walk and, aged seven, developed epilepsy, but the seizures appear to have stopped.
Rhys has always been football crazy, at first supporting dad Adam’s team Arsenal, before switching allegiance to Fulham six years ago.
But his dream has always been to play football just like his friends.
Kelly says: “I remember when he was about three or four, he asked, ‘Can you buy me these boots because all the football players play really good in them? If you buy me these boots maybe my legs will work’. Those things were heartbreaking.” 
Rhys says: “I always wondered why I couldn’t play for a normal team. I always wanted to play for the school and win a cup. When I was little the coach kept saying I couldn’t play.”
His dream of being a player came true in 2013 when he and pal Tom Manning, 16, joined Feltham Bees, a football team for disabled youngsters. 
Sometimes Rhys would play outfield in his electric wheelchair but he loved the freedom of going in goal on his hands and knees.
But a six-second video of him making a save during a Surrey pan-disability tournament he posted on TikTok in June sparked a torrent of cruel comments.
Rhys named as reserve keeper for the Fulham squadCredit: Arthur Edwards / The Sun

 Adam, 43, who reduced his hours as a builder to be Rhys’s carer, says: “Some of the hurtful comments were from kids, but much of it was adults and that boiled my blood even more.”
Kelly adds: “We knew it was adults by the names he was called, like ‘vegetable van der Sar’. Van der Sar is a player from our era, a child wouldn’t use that name. 
“Another said, ‘Read these comments before you come to the pub tonight, they’re really funny’. 
“Somebody else wrote, ‘Oh look at him, he is doing an Eriksen’, on the day Christian Eriksen had a cardiac arrest on the pitch playing for Denmark in the Euros.”
Adam says: “When he saw all this hate, Rhys got in a right state, screaming the place down, saying, ‘I don’t want to play football any more. Why are people so cruel?’.
“One thing we’ve never done is shield Rhys from the fact that life is harsh. If you tell him the truth he takes it on the chin, listens and then deals with it the way he wants to deal with it.”
So the family sat down together and read every vile comment. They even found photos online of some of the people behind the slurs.
Kelly says: “In the beginning we set out to drown the negative comments with positive ones. I dropped emails to Fulham and other clubs.
“Arsenal commented, ‘Really great save, Rhys’. But off the back of the positivity, there were comments like, ‘Why the hell is a club commenting on a kid that has just jumped a centimetre?’. 
“I don’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing because it was just making it more and more negative.”
‘I’m me, just me’
Then, instead of censoring the offenders, TikTok removed Rhys’s video for “attracting too much hate”. It later backed down.
 Rhys decided to fight back against the haters with positivity. He raised nearly £20,000 for disability charity Scope by doing 20 saves a day and encouraged friends to take part in Scope’s Make It Count challenge with their own fundraising activities.
Rhys also created his own campaign #BU, which stands for Be You, to encourage everyone to include those who are disabled or different in their lives and activities.
Kelly says: “Being a teenager in a wheelchair he has noticed that you don’t often get invited with the rest of the class to hang around in the park and do all the things boys of his age do.” 
In his bedroom, surrounded by football memorabilia, Rhys designed a logo to go on hoodies, which he sells to raise more money for Scope.
His #BU logo shows stick people who are disabled, black, gay and white all high-fiving each other. 
Rhys would love England and Arsenal star Bukayo Saka — who was a victim of trolls during the Euros — to wear one. He says: “I want to try to make a difference for disabled people. You should have the same opportunities and chances as anyone else would. 
“You shouldn’t have to be anyone different, be compared or face bullying or torment for who you are. I may not be perfect but I’m good enough. I’m me, just me.”
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PM Boris Johnson sent a handwritten letter telling Rhys how sorry he was to hear about the nasty comments.
The PM added: “Please don’t let it bother you and carry on doing everything you enjoy.”
Last week Rhys went to Wembley to play wheelchair football with the stars of the England Cerebral Palsy team, who have now invited him to St George’s Park, the national training ground. 
And Fulham’s players were so impressed with how Rhys has beaten the bullies that they invited him to train with them last week. 
‘Every boy’s dream’
Centre back Tim Ream says: “People think players are role models and inspirations. What Rhys is doing is more of an inspiration than anything any of us can do.”
At Fulham’s Motspur Park training ground, Rhys gave a #BU hoodie to striker Bobby Reid.
The youngster says: “I told Bobby ‘if you don’t score on Saturday against Bristol then I’ll take the hoodie back’. When Mitrovic scored, I saw Bobby wave at me and the players all came over, jumped the barrier and give me a big hug. It was amazing.”
The game ended 1-1 but by then video of the goal celebration had gone viral. Through the early hours of the following morning, Rhys’s phone pinged non-stop.
Kelly says: “I woke up in the night thinking, ‘What the bloody hell is that?’. 
“His phone was lighting up with thousands of messages of support from all over the world — even someone from Peru. He has had the week of his life, every boy’s dream.”
And the dream has carried on. 
At their Craven Cottage ground on Wednesday — where Fulham beat Swansea 3-1 — Rhys was listed in the match programme as Goalkeeper Number 4. 
Breaking into that massive grin, he said: “Three injuries and I’m on!”
Rhys makes the save in the TikTok video that led to trolling
In his beloved Fulham shirt with Adam and KellyCredit: Arthur Edwards / The Sun
Rhys looking right at home with his Fulham teammatesCredit: Arthur Edwards / The Sun
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THREE people made me who I am today.My mum, Emma Deeney, the strongest person I know.
Troy Deeney says: ‘I am wary of saying I had an unhappy childhood because there were a lot of great things in it, but there was alcohol and there was ­violence’Credit: The Sun
Deeney as a young player at WalsallCredit: PA:Empics Sport
My dad, Paul Anthony Burke, who decided I take my mum’s surname because of his reputation around Birmingham.
Even though my dad could be ­violent and abusive towards me and Mum and was in and out of jail most of his life, he looked after me, taught me how to be a man, how to play football and I knew he loved me and I loved him.
Colin Hemmings is my biological father.
He left me and Mum when I was a baby and I’ve had very little to do with him since.
Until recently, just hearing his name made me feel angry.
Rejection like that leaves a mark on a kid and on a man — and I’ve been trying to deal with it most of my life.

In the period of my life when I drank too much, a decade or so ago, I thought I drank because I couldn’t deal with death
But the root of my unhappiness actually came a lot ­earlier.
I think of Colin Hemmings as a sperm donor. Nothing more.
That was the only contribution he made to my life.
And when my father passed away, from cancer at 47, who was the DJ at his wake? Colin Hemmings.
It was incredibly weird.
He came up to me a couple of times and I was thinking, “This is really not the time.”
A lot of things I’ve done are because of rejection.
I put this hard mask on, this tough guy who fights and brawls and went to prison and says the Arsenal players don’t have “cojones”, all because I don’t want to be rejected again.
I am wary of saying I had an unhappy childhood because there were a lot of great things in it, but there was alcohol and there was ­violence.
I was lucky because the man who I will always call “Dad” took care of me when my biological father rejected me.
My dad was also a career ­criminal and, yes, there were ­occasions when he was violent towards Mum and me.
Dad spent his life in and out of jail.
When I was a young player at ­Walsall, Dad came to watch me play at Northampton Town.
My dad could be ­violent and abusive towards me and Mum and was in and out of jail most of his life, he looked after me, taught me how to be a man, how to play football and I knew he loved me and I loved him.Troy Deeney
When I came out of the ground he was waiting for me in a blue Mercedes.
I knew he didn’t have a blue Mercedes.
He didn’t have a car. He didn’t even have a licence. He had never passed his test. He had never taken his test.
I assumed the Mercedes was ­“borrowed” but I got in and we set off down the M1.
He had the music turned up loud and everything was cool and we chatted about the game.
Then we stopped to get ­petrol. The music went off and I heard this banging coming from behind.
“Don’t worry about that,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“Look,” he said, “there’s someone in there but I’m going to drop him off in a bit.”
He mentioned the name of a bloke who was a small-time drug dealer on the estate, Chelmsley Wood, eight miles east of Birmingham city centre.
“What?”
“He owes my pal some money so I’ve taken him on a little journey for the day,” Dad said.
“I’ve fed him and that and he’s fine. We’ll drop him off later and I bet he pays.”
There was me trying to make a career at Walsall and we are driving around with a bloke in the boot of the car.
Rejection like that leaves a mark on a kid and on a man — and I’ve been trying to deal with it most of my life.Troy Deeney
To him that was normal.
I’ve seen him referred to as a drug dealer in some of the profiles written about me and maybe he did do a bit of that, but if he did it was only small-time.
He sold knock-off stuff here and there, I think he probably acted as a kind of enforcer for people now and again.
He didn’t care about the law.
He ignored it and then, every so often, it caught up with him.
He never wanted money. He enjoyed a tear-up. He enjoyed creating fear.
But, despite everything, he was still my superhero. And he looked after me when I needed it.
When my mum was 17 she worked as a carer at East Birmingham ­Hospital.
There was a social club there and one Friday night a friend persuaded her to go to the disco there. That’s when she met Colin Hemmings.
He was a hospital porter and a part-time DJ. He asked her to a party afterwards.
He already had a baby with someone else but Mum didn’t know that until much later.
After they had been going out for some time, Mum found out she was expecting me, and while she was pregnant he was offered a job as a DJ in Ibiza.
There was me trying to make a career at Walsall and we are driving around with a bloke in the boot of the car.Troy Deeney
Mum took me over there to see him for my first birthday but she soon found he had been ­seeing other women so she split up with him.
I have only had two or three encounters with Colin Hemmings in my 33 years. He left my mum when she was 19 to fend for herself. That’s not a man to me.
Has it caused me pain over the years? 100 per cent.
I have spoken to psychologists about how that has impacted my life in regard to my children and why I used to drink so much.
Some months later, Mum met Paul Anthony Burke at a house party.
His way of chatting her up was taking her hand, ­putting a Rizla in her palm and making a spliff. Really romantic.
He had only been out of jail for a few weeks after serving time for GBH.
My dad did some bad things.
And he did some bad things to me too but he took me on when my ­biological father didn’t want me.
He looked after me, taught me how to play football, taught me how to defend myself, taught me right from wrong, taught me how to ride a bike, how to swim.
Mum and Dad stayed together for eight years until eventually Mum had had enough. I don’t think it was the life of crime that wore her down, more the continued absences.
When she tried to end the ­relationship he didn’t take it well.
He looked after me when my biological father rejected me. He was a career criminal and he was violent. But he was still my superhero.Troy Deeney
He told her that if she took me and my brother, Ellis, and sister, Sasha, he’d batter her in front of us. We were living at my nan’s in Stechford.
One day, when I was nine, Mum came to pick me up from school but when I came through the gates I realised something was wrong.
Dad was there and he was shouting and yelling. I hurried over to Mum’s car and got in the back seat with Ellis.
She pulled away but Dad jumped in a white van and first tried to block us in then followed us, right on our back bumper the whole way.
As we pulled up outside my nan’s, Dad leaped out of the van, ran over to our car and flung the doors open.
He grabbed me and my brother and sister, marched us over to the van and locked us inside it.
All we could do was stare out of the window at what was unfolding.
Mum told me some of the rest. Dad jumped into her car and threatened her.
He thought she had been laughing at him at the school. She had been smiling to a friend.
Dad put his thumbs in the ­corners of her mouth and started pulling them so it stretched her face. “I’ll give you a f***ing smile,” he said.
“You can have a Joker’s smile.”
Then he got hold of her head and slammed it against the window. Mum’s brother, Uncle David, came out and remonstrated with Dad.
He got out of the car and fronted up to Uncle David, who said he didn’t want to fight him.
He grabbed me and my brother and sister, marched us over to the van and locked us inside it.Troy Deeney
He got my mum and walked her to the house.
It was a traumatic time for all of us.
The council allocated us a new house.
Mum was terrified Dad would find out where. We kept it a secret.
About six months after they split, she went out with someone else.
I stayed over at Nan’s with Ellis and Sasha.
Dad came round in a taxi. He was wired, like he was hopped up on something.
He loaded the three of us into the back. He had somehow managed to find out where we were living.
We pulled up outside our flat.
Mum opened the door and her expression turned to pure fear.
He started going from room to room. “Who were you with last night?” he asked.
“Have you spent the night on your own?”
“Yeah, I have,” Mum said.
“You’re a liar,” he shouted.
He called Mum all the names under the sun. I was crying my eyes out.
I told him to calm down but he was out of ­control.
“I’m going to kill your mum,” he said to me and pointed to each of us kids in turn, “and then I’m going to kill you and I’m going to kill you and I’m going to kill you.”
He began flinging punches at my mum.
I tried to get between them and he punched me and knocked me over and hit Mum again.
I got up and he punched me again.
He said to Mum she had to take him back.
Every time she said no, he hit her.
I jumped up, getting in front and he hit me.
That seemed to go on forever. It was mayhem
Dad was wired. He said: ‘I’m going to kill your mum’ and pointing to us kids in turn: ‘Then I’ll kill you and I’ll kill you and I’ll kill you’Troy Deeney
He picked Sasha up and flung her on a chair. It was mayhem.
A friend of mine knocked on the door. That saved us.
Dad let Mum answer the door but he was ­holding on to her hair to stop her running away.
A woman next door called the police. They arrived quickly.
One of the policemen pushed the door ajar.
Dad slammed the door on his arm.
Loads of police vehicles pulled up outside — two riot vans and four police cars, all for my dad.
They forced their way in and ­wrestled him to the floor.
“Look what these b******s have done to your dad,” he was saying. “All I wanted to do was see you.”
It was an end of innocence for me. It destroyed my relationship with my dad for a few years.
I forgave him for it but I never forgot.
The first time he came to our house after he had beaten us up, I p***ed myself because I was so ­frightened.
A year or so later I was chasing some kid because we’d had an argument.
He climbed up on to a shed. As I was pulling myself up he kicked me in the face and I went flying backwards and landed hard on my elbow.
I was in hospital for a week and every time I woke up Dad was ­sitting in the chair by my bed.
He was there with me constantly.
All the other stuff had gone because when I needed him most he was there.
It was a strange dynamic. It’s probably why I’m so messed up now.

 Troy Deeney – Redemption: My Story is out on Thursday (Hamlyn, £20, ­octopusbooks.co.uk).

Baby Troy aged oneCredit: Troy Deeney / Octopus Books
Troy, his brother Ellis and dad Paul
Footie star Troy’s hero is his hard-working mum Emma and he says she is the strongest person he knows
Troy Deeney – Redemption: My Story is out on Thursday (Hamlyn, £20, ­octopusbooks.co.uk)
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