Che Adams confirms it is “Shay” rather than “Chay” before he sits down to discuss how he has become Southampton’s newest signing in a £14m deal from Birmingham City but the spelling of his name begs an obvious question. Is there any connection to Che Guevara?

“Yeah, it was where I got my name from,” Adams replies, breezily. “Che Guevara was in the news around the time that I was born and I think it was something to do with where his body was buried, although I’m not sure. My mum just really liked the name.”

There is laughter in the room because, as opening answers go, one that involves the bones of fabled South American revolutionaries takes some beating. “So that’s it – that’s all I’ve got,” the striker adds with a smile.

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The 23-year-old has got so much more and it is fair to say he has packed a lot into his career. It began with a bang as an 18-year-old at Sheffield United, when he was given his debut in a League Cup quarter-final, coincidentally against Southampton, which ended in a 1-0 win and, shortly after, took in a cameo against Spurs in the second leg of the semi-final. He came on in the 74th minute and, by the 79th minute, he had scored twice to make it 2-2 on aggregate. Spurs would squeak through with a late Christian Eriksen winner.

At Birmingham there was the last‑day escape from relegation in 2016-17, when Adams scored the decisive goal at Bristol City and, last season, a return of 22 Championship goals, that led to his being named in the division’s team of the season.

But Adams’s story captures the imagination because of what he did before all of that; how he slipped out of the academy system and was forced to find a springboard for his career in the non-leagues, which were every bit as bruising as the stereotype suggests.

The big rejection came from Coventry City at 14 – he had been with them since the age of seven – but there were “four or five times” when he was turned down by Leicester City, his hometown club, after trials.

“The first time would have been before Coventry, so under-8s, and it was until under-16s – that would have been my last go,” Adams says. “Leicester was the closest team to us so it was always a dream to play for them.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Che Adams in action during the pre-season friendly against Altach in Austria. Photograph: Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images

“I can remember the day they released me at Coventry – it leaves a mark, definitely – although me and the family knew it was coming. You get a feel for when someone doesn’t want you, when you are kind of getting pushed away. It was just disappointment; towards myself and the people that helped me get there.

“But it either pushes you on or knocks you back. At that age, it’s make or break. You either go down the education route or you keep working hard at your football. That’s what I did. I didn’t really get on with the academy life and it was the right decision for me to go another way.”

Adams’s salvation came at Ilkeston, the Derbyshire club that played in the seventh tier. He joined after a spell further down at Oadby, initially travelling from his home in Leicester, taking an early morning train to Derby followed by a long bus journey, before he moved into digs. Ilkeston trained full-time – a rarity at that level – and, for Adams, there was also a BTec level 3 college course in sports studies.

“We’d train in the morning, get lunch – we’d have to walk to Tesco or something like that – and then it would be back in for education,” Adams says. “College was all right. The majority of the people were just there for the football, you could tell. I moved up to Ilkeston at 16, 17 and it was there that I first came to grips with the sacrifices you have to make to be at the top.”

Adams remembers being paid “£75 a week or maybe £75 a game” after he broke into the Ilkeston first team and he certainly earned it. “It’s just a question of how hard you’re going to get kicked,” he says. “You definitely get kicked harder in non‑league because the referee is all the way in the other penalty box or on the other side of the pitch.

“Of course it’s frustrating but I was a little boy and I couldn’t really say anything to the older men, could I? It’s a little kid running around you and you just want to kick him as hard as you can to stop him from doing that.”

In the first few months of the 2014-15 season, Adams was the most in-demand player in non-league football. “Sixteen games, 11 goals, nine assists,” he says, showing the total recall of a striker for personal statistics. More than 40 clubs sent scouts to watch him on one occasion. “I was reading all sorts about myself,” Adams says. “It was overwhelming and special.” In November 2014 Nigel Clough paid £135,000 to take him to Sheffield United.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Che Adams celebrates for Birmingham City at Norwich in January 2019. Photograph: Nigel French/PA

Adams’s value has since soared – Birmingham have turned a tidy profit on the £2m that they stumped up to get him from Bramall Lane in 2016 – but what is striking is how there is nothing remotely big-time about him.

He fears that he might have messed up in his unveiling interview with Southampton’s in-house media team, when he said that he now wanted to win the Premier League and, yes, it led to the inevitable mockery on social media. But Adams merely wanted to offer something wholehearted rather than bland. Do Southampton fans really want to hear their players say that they dream of finishing seventh?

It would be wrong to mistake Adams’s ambition for cockiness. He is warm and easy company, and it is no surprise to hear that he has settled in seamlessly at Southampton; he scored after 116 seconds of the team’s opening pre-season friendly against the Austrian team SCR Altach on Sunday. Adams’s non-league background has shaped and toughened him but the determination to make it as a footballer has burned since his childhood in Leicester’s Thurnby Lodge, which has the reputation of being a tough area.

“No, I thought it was all right, to be honest. Everyone really knew each other, everyone knew what everyone did and so everyone’s got respect. It’s still like that now. I think everyone who comes up – they say they had a hard life but I think it’s just normal.”

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Adams’s role model was his mother, Frances, who raised him and his three older siblings. “She’d take me across the country to play football all the time, breaking down in the car on some days,” Adams says. “She made me the person I am today.”

His focus on football also helped to ensure he did not get mixed up in the wrong things as he grew up. “I think everyone is going to get that pressure but it’s your mental strength,” he says. “Everyone had respect for me, they knew what I wanted to do, so I never really got caught up in it or they never involved me in anything like that. I’ve seen people make the wrong choices, I’ve seen it everywhere and it is scary but they made the choices.”

To Adams, Southampton feels like the ideal fit. Ralph Hasenhüttl, the manager, is obsessed by speed and strength, high pressing and intelligence – and these are the qualities that define Adams’s game, together with an ability to unload shots quickly on the turn. Adams had other suitors, including Everton, West Ham and Burnley, and he could have got more money elsewhere. But he knows that Southampton can be a pathway for young players; he believes in Hasenhüttl and his project.

“Me and the gaffer had a chat, he told me the way he wanted to play and I thought it would suit me perfectly,” Adams says. “He wants to build something, achieve good things, and it’s something I wanted to be a part of. I know I caused a stir when I said about winning the league – probably too much of a stir – but it was just pure optimism, looking up rather than down. I want to get right to the top. It just depends on how hard you want to work; how much you actually want it.”