Meet the British NFL rookie set to make his professional American football debut just 10 miles from where he grew up

Jermaine Eluemunor returns back to his homeland this weekend with the Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman hoping to play at the same stadium his dad worked security for 20 years ago

Jermaine Eluemunor returns to his homeland this weekend hoping for a fairytale NFL bow (Getty)

Growing up in north London any sports-mad child could be forgiven for dreaming of one day playing on the hallowed turf of Wembley Stadium. But when Jermaine Eluemunor returns to the home of football this weekend it'll be for a whole different ball game.

The 22-year-old Chalk Farm native grew up playing rugby and football but a chance meeting with the first-ever regular season American football game on British soil on television a decade ago set him along a different path and one that will lead him out in front of 90,000 people on Sunday.

10 years and 17 games later Eluemunor's Baltimore Ravens face the Jacksonville Jaguars in the first of four NFL International Series games on this side of the pond in the next five weeks.

A fifth-round rookie Eluemunor was picked up as something of a project by the play-off chasing Ravens, but a spate of early-season injuries to their offensive line could see the London boy handed the most fairytale of dream debuts.

"I can't express how it feels being in my rookie year and being in front of my home crowd and just playing at Wembley," he says when asked about such a prospect. "Playing at Wembley has always been a dream of mine even before I was playing in the NFL. So, I'm just blessed to be able to come back here and be in front of the fans and play at Wembley Stadium.

"I grew up watching games in that stadium so to be able to say I played there is something I will remember for the rest of my life."

As he says Eluemunor is no stranger to Wembley - his father worked security for England games in the 1990s - and as an avid Arsenal fan he recalls memories of the round ball game fondly.

Eluemunor was drafted out of Texas A&M in the fifth round of this year's draft (Getty)

"I remember watching a couple of England games back when David Beckham and Michael Owen played, and Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney in his younger days," he adds. "I remember watching all those games. Being able to play on the same field as some of those names, who have huge support back home, is definitely something I will remember."

Eluemunor is by no means the first Brit to try his hand on the gridiron. Manchester-born Menelik Watson will be anchoring the right side of the Denver Broncos line this weekend while Londoner Jay Ajayi is set to return to the UK for his own Wembley homecoming in a week's time when the Miami Dolphins host the New Orleans Saints.

Eluemunor played in the pre-season but is yet to make his professional bow (Getty)

It will no doubt be a special and career-high moment should he take the field on Sunday afternoon but for Eluemunor his long-awaited appearance under the bright lights is as much about inspiring another's dream as it is fulfilling his own.

"I've always wanted to show children that they can be whatever they want to be if they work hard for it," he says. "Hopefully with me playing on Sunday there will be a kid watching the game for the first time and he falls in love with the NFL. There would be nothing sweeter than that. My main goal is inspiring.

"Even if it's not American football I want to inspire people to show that you can achieve whatever you want to. Don't let anything scare you away, don't let anything stop you. Everyone's allowed to dream, any dreams are possible are to achieve if you really work at it. So that's what I hope to prove."