Junior Gnonkonde’s journey from Africa to UNC includes storybook moment at Georgia Tech

Posted Oct 5, 2015
Junior Gnonkonde, a junior defensive end at UNC, had grown up in Abidjan, the largest city in the African nation of Ivory Coast. He left home when he was 14 and wound up in Lakeland, in rural south Georgia. He arrived without knowledge of English and knew nothing about football. Yet there he was Saturday, in UNC’s victory at Georgia Tech, picking up a fumble while about 25 people from his U.S. hometown went wild. (Charlotte Observer)

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