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“When I was nine we came over to the UK from Sudan. All I wanted to do was play football and I remember being in school teams but it’s very different. Over there, you only have one thing, you just want to play football all the time, especially if you come from a poor background. So when you come over you think, ‘I want to make it so I can help my family’.”

Mohamed and Abobaker Eisa have made it.

Some 18 years since moving to Camden from Khartoum, Sudan’s capital city, the brothers have reached the elite level of the game they love after a remarkable journey.

MK Dons striker Mohamed — known as Mo — and Bradford City winger Abobaker — known as Abo — arrived in London yet to learn English, but with a burning belief that they had what they needed to make it as professional footballers. Now, they boast 70 EFL goals and 244 professional appearances between them.

“I was younger, but you do remember a lot of stuff,” Abo tells The Athletic about his memories of Sudan. “It was a poor upbringing but I still remember my time as a good one. I was a happy child and it was fun. It’s free in Sudan. You can go to anyone’s house and they will welcome you. My time there was a nice upbringing and we didn’t know too much. As a kid you just want to play and you don’t have stress.”

“It’s a big family,” Mo says. “We have lots of cousins there and when we go back on holiday it just brings back memories every time.”

“The biggest thing it gives you is being humble,” Abo adds. “Knowing what it is like for your other family members there. It’s just about belief. If we didn’t believe in our own ability, you wouldn’t go far. Then enjoying the moments and not looking too far into the past or into the future, just taking it as it comes. We are a religious family so we believe in everything happening for a reason and if you’re meant to be a professional footballer then you will be. We have a lot of faith in God and that’s a big part of how we got here.”

As Mo and Abo, at 27 and 25 years old respectively, speak to The Athletic over Zoom, there are plenty of shared jokes and appreciation for their rise from non-League football to the EFL. The pair signed their maiden professional contracts at Cheltenham Town (Mo) and Shrewsbury Town (Abo) within six months of each other after first being picked up playing at Coram’s Fields, a park a short walk from their house in north London, by the Pro Touch academy when Mo was 14.

“It wasn’t proper football, we would just play in a park just five minutes from our house,” Mo says. “That’s where I started to enjoy it and think I might be good enough one day. I had a few trials but it never worked, so I just went into a college scheme and found myself going into non-League.

“In non-League, it was tough. This wasn’t Conference (fifth-tier) level — it was five steps below that. But I still had belief in myself that one day something would come up. I signed my first professional contract at 23.”

“Him signing a professional deal gave me a bit more belief to do it,” Abo says of his own move from non-League Wealdstone to Shrewsbury in January 2018. “If he could do it, then I just felt like I could as well. 

“I went to Brunel University and the closest club there was Uxbridge (in London’s far western suburbs) so I played there for two years while doing a biomedicine degree. In my third year I signed for (nearby) Wealdstone and then in the January I signed professionally and carried on doing my degree while I was at Shrewsbury, which worked out OK.

“Thankfully, I handed my dissertation in just before I got all the interest. There’s no right way of making it and I guess non-League gives you a few different skills to what going in through an academy does. And your raw traits, you can develop them because you don’t get loads of coaching and you develop through experience.”

Abo is grateful that coming through non-League gave him the chance to complete his education, although the brothers have an interesting comparison of what life might have been like had they been picked up by a club academy at a young age — they have a younger brother, Omar, who is on the books at Championship side Queens Park Rangers in west London.

Celebrating Omar’s 18th birthday on Halloween will be cause for a rare occasion when all the Eisa boys meet up at home with youngest brother Khalid, who is yet to spark serious interest in football despite his elder siblings’ influence.

“With my younger brother now coming through an academy, I’m happy he’s at QPR and can learn his traits there rather than in non-League,” Mo says. “If I had that, I think I would have got into the game much quicker. 

“Back then it was hard, because you don’t know when your next trial is going to come and you’re in non-League thinking, ‘This might be my last trial’. I kept getting knocked back. I used to think playing football was all good and rosy but when you go through a tough time with injury or whatever, it can affect you mentally. Growing up I had all those clubs telling me no and that didn’t stop me. Once you get through it you become strong mentally.”

Mo enjoyed spells with Dartford and Corinthian FC before netting an impressive 52 goals in 81 games for Greenwich Borough, where he earned a trial for Cheltenham. Despite being “the worst player on the pitch” and “everything going so wrong” on the day, he did enough for then-manager Gary Johnson to take a chance on him. One year and 25 League Two goals later, he sealed a £1.5 million move to Bristol City in the Championship, who were then managed by Gary’s son Lee.

“The first few days at Cheltenham were really different,” he says. “The drills we used to do we didn’t do in non-League, I couldn’t get my head around it and I was ruining the session for other players. After a couple of days you do get used to it and then it wasn’t as hard as I thought. Then I went from playing every single game for Cheltenham to making the step up to the Championship at Bristol City, which was tough. You need belief and a little bit of luck. 

“Eventually, you get your rewards.”

Mo’s rewards include promotion from League One with Peterborough United last season and a strong start to life at new club MK Dons, with three goals in 10 appearances back in that division so far — his next goal will be his 50th in professional football.

Meanwhile, it has been a frustrating start to the season for Abo at fourth-tier Bradford as he has been sidelined with a hamstring injury but both are well settled at their new clubs having leaned on each other for advice when deciding their next career moves.

“Normally, whoever comes in for us, we’ll talk about the best places to go to, but with me it’s different because I’ll know what I want already,” Mo says. “Abo asks me. He had a few choices and will want to know which one is best and we talk about it.”

Their parents have been a “big support” with their dad watching matches when work allows, although their mum “doesn’t really watch football”. The siblings share a close connection and have been in the stand supporting each other at big games and Wembley appearances when their competing fixture lists allow, although they are yet to face each other at professional level.

“In terms of a rivalry, Mo used to play with the older kids and I used to join in,” Abo says. “For me it was always kind of playing catch-up, because I wanted to be as good as everyone else there.”

“From a young age, it wasn’t really a rivalry because I was always miles better,” Mo jokes, prompting an exaggerated eye roll from his brother. “He didn’t play football like I did. Obviously I always wanted to win but I was the best anyway. He’s growing up and he’s good now. In the summer we’ll play each other with friends. He’ll be in one team and I’ll be on the other and it’ll be more about who’s going to win.“

Once the joking subsides, Abo is not too proud to say that he genuinely has taken inspiration from his older brother’s journey as Mo relishes the thought of an MK Dons vs Bradford FA Cup tie this season — even if it would mean added stress.

“It would be quite interesting if it does happen, it would be funny,” he says. “When my dad comes to watch me play it puts more pressure on me. I tell him to come but not to tell me that he’s going to come — just let me know after, so I don’t have that pressure.

“We’ve not played each other professionally but it would be fun. I think mum would come and watch then.”