PLYMOUTH Argyle striker Rory Fallon was in Tenerife with his girlfriend Carly when the couple, neither of them practising Christians, felt compelled to go to church.

They'd been moved by the disappearance of Maddie McCann in Portugal and felt the need for comfort and to offer prayers.

"It was strange," Rory recalls. "We didn't know where we were going, what (denomination) the church was, what the times of the services were, but we walked straight in and there was a service on and it happened to be in English."

The New Zealander had travelled 11,000 miles from his home country to make his dream of becoming a professional footballer come true. But the greatest journey of his life was those few short steps into a church.

Those strides led the striker to a goal he'd had in his sights for years – to become a born-again Christian.

"The pastor was talking to the congregation about becoming a Christian and how many people would not make the commitment.

"He said, 'what are you waiting for?' It was like those words were aimed at me and Carly."

A few months later, on January 20, 2008, the couple were baptised at Mutley Baptist Church and 10 months later they were married.

"It has not been easy," Rory adds, reflecting on his path to and since his spiritual wakening.

But he allows himself frequent smiles as he talks about how deep and personal the commitment to Christianity is.

His relaxed attitude to others' opinions of him includes any comments he gets on and off the pitch, from opponents and team-mates. Football has a macho and conformist reputation. Fans, players and backroom staff can be merciless in their treatment of anybody perceived to be different.

"It's all water off a duck's back," says Rory. "I have a lot of good friends here (at Argyle) who are just happy for me.

"Sure they (opponents) can try to wind you up on the pitch and you can't always be calm because this is sport and things can happen. I have a bit of a temper and once in a while that will come out.

"What really matters is how you react afterwards. I am brave enough to apologise.

"We all fall short of our goals. I have never claimed to be perfect."

That last comment, he admits, can cause laughter from anybody who knows what he was like before embracing God.

"I drank too much; I did a lot of clubbing and partying. I was crazy. Even my own brother told me he never felt relaxed around me."

That comment from Sean clearly affected Rory.

"My own brother," he repeats. "That just shows how Jesus has changed my life."

The comment from Sean was affecting not only because it came form a member of his family, but also because it was from somebody who knows the life of a footballer: the pressures, the rewards, the egos (the 'all about me' show, Rory calls it).

Sean was on Liverpool's books as a youngster and spent a year as a professional at the Anfield club before realising he would not make it at the top level in the game. He moved out of football and now runs his own business in Perth, Western Australia.

"Sean always had things outside football, other sport, but I didn't," Rory explains. "For me it was always football, football, football; nothing else. That's all I ever wanted from when I was a kid."

Rory was born in Gisborne on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. His father was a pro, too: Kevin Fallon's career was cut short by injury and he went on to be a coach and is something of a national hero – he was on the staff which took the Kiwis to the 1982 World Cup in Spain.

Mum Mere is a Maori, which brings another smile from Rory. "I had all those Maori gods in my background," he says. Kevin is a Catholic but the family were not churchgoers. Sean and Rory's sister, Bianca (now a make-up artist for New Zealand TV) were baptised but, ironically, not Rory, although he adds: "I always had a belief in Jesus."

He left New Zealand at 16 to join Barnsley's youth set-up. Moving around the world at such a young age, away from family and friends, might have been enough to send many a kid off the rails, but Rory doesn't make excuses or look for sympathy.

He insists that he was well-grounded by his family and knew the ropes because of the experiences of his father and brother.

Instead, one of the first friendships he made was with a born-again Christian, Bruce Dyer, a senior pro at Barnsley. "I used to clean his boots and I'd ask him about his beliefs. I found out that I was searching for something. He told me that Jesus was a real person, a historical figure, not just somebody in the Bible. That was important to me: He had to be real."

Rory did not take his search much further and his early playing career assumed a pattern. At a succession of clubs, Barnsley, then Swindon and Swansea, and during loan spells in between, he would score goals, make an impression but never quite fulfil his potential. Along the way he would find himself talking to fellow players who were Christians, but did not develop in that direction either.

Then at Swansea, the club who made him their second highest signing – the League One side paid £300,000 for him in January 2006 – he met Carly, a solicitor. Her mother, Pearl, has always been a practising Christian but Carly was not, yet "something just clicked for both of us".

"I was probably at my worst, then," Rory admits. "I was socialising with the lads and not focusing on my football at all; I was doing OK, but not doing as well as I should have done.

"I felt I had to leave the club and I thought I'd have to go to a smaller club to get established, but to my amazement Argyle, a bigger club, a Championship side, came in for me. I believe it was a gift from God."

The Pilgrims' then boss, Ian Holloway, paid £300,000 for Rory, equalling their transfer record at that time.

Tenerife followed and Rory committed himself as a Christian.

"I could feel God had been calling me, with all those things happening, one thing after the next," he says, then stops. "You could call them coincidences but I don't see it like that. I know. Too many things have happened for them just to be coincidences. I feel that God is always with me."

Fired by such enthusiasm, Rory's commitment to God extends beyond regular church attendance. One of the reasons he and Carly chose Mutley Baptist is the church's strong community involvement focus.

Rory is patron of the Plymouth branch of Faith and Football, a Christian organisation founded by the Portsmouth defender Linvoy Primus. Branch director Jay Lawrence is a close friend and as well as running a children's football league in Devonport, the organisation has moved beyond soccer to embrace rugby and basketball: Plymouth Albion's Wihan Neethling and Plymouth Raiders' James Noel are co-patrons. Argyle players Jamie Mackie and Luke Summerfield supported the launch of the city organisation at a fund-raising dinner at Home Park last November.

Rory coaches in Devonport and is involved in another initiative to boost children's reading skills.

Turning out for Argyle on the rare occasions they play on a Sunday is not an issue, nor is two games in three days (home to Coventry today, away at Birmingham City on Monday) at such an important Christian festival, Easter. Rory believes that the work he does as a Christian and the example he gives outside church is more important than his attendance in it.

On the field, not everything has always gone as well for Rory at Argyle, though. He has rarely been a first-choice striker for the Pilgrims. Although he has scored some memorable goals, he has not been prolific.

He struggled to establish himself under Holloway's regime and new manager Paul Sturrock, who took over in November 2007, 'wanted me out'.

"That's football," says Rory. "I was struggling. Southend United came in with an offer (to buy me) and I prayed and prayed.

"Then I had a dream from God which told me to stay in Plymouth." Rory pauses and smiles broadly before continuing: "People will think I'm nuts! But that is what happened.

"I told my agent the next morning I was not going anywhere.

"I was not happy at that time. But I worked hard feeling this was my last chance."

The extra work paid off with more regular games this season. "It has certainly been better with minutes on the pitch. I'm just grateful to be involved."

At 27, Rory is in his prime as a striker. Injuries permitting, he can look forward to many more years in the game before... well, what?

"I don't know, that's down to Jesus. I am clay in the potter's hands; coaching children, perhaps."

Her might, perhaps, have gone on to greater things had he settled into his football earlier and focused better. He could have been a full international with New Zealand, but failed to put in the paperwork to change nationalities after representing England at junior level.

"I don't regret that," he says, anticipating the question before it is asked. "The only regret I have in football and in life is that I did not become a Christian earlier."

Perhaps he did not make the move sooner because of the lack of role models in the game a decade ago. Before the English game was flooded with foreign stars, particularly Latin and African players – who are more open about Christianity – God rarely got a mention in football stadiums.

Today, though, Fallon has many friends in football who are Christians, including Bristol City pair Adriano Basso and Bradley Orr.

And any youngster coming into the game can look up to arguably the greatest player in the world, AC Milan and Brazil striker Kaka, who has declared: "I belong to Jesus."

Such dedication off the pitch is making better players on it, Rory believes, through fitter and more committed players who have distanced themselves from the temptations of clubbing and boozing, which have been the downfall of so many potential greats in the British game.

He is not about to evangelise, spreading that message in the dressing room, though.

"If anybody wants to ask me about God I'll happily talk to them, but I don't preach," says Rory.

"I am not some weird guy in the corner of the dressing room reading the Bible."

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