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ESTERO — The dialect is different. So is the home address.

But Kenny Saro is like the rest of them. Same will to win. Same love of the game. Same hope for something better — the NFL, even — beyond arenafootball2, where the dreams are big but the money never is.

That’s why he came here, after all. It wasn’t to blow up wedges on kickoff coverage. Not in the minor leagues, at least. He came here, like the rest of them, because he knew it could lead him places.

He just took a longer route.

Kehinde Abdul Ganiu Saro comes from Nigeria, by way of the United Kingdom. He was born in the first country and began his football career in the other. That’s American football, mind you, not the worldly “football” he played in the streets as a kid.

For two years now he has knocked heads in the States, the latest stint as a fullback/linebacker with the Florida Firecats. He figures that a roster spot in America — anywhere in America — will make it easier for the right people to notice him, even if his role these days doesn’t attract the spotlight.

“Everybody’s goal is to play at the next level,” Saro says. “To tell you I came over for this would be a lie. Arena2 is good for exposure. It’s a good league, but I know what I can do.”

If only he had found out sooner. At an age when most of the Firecats were fighting for all-conference honors, Saro put pads on his shoulders for the first time. He was old enough to buy a beer — the magic birthday is the 18th for British teens — before he learned to take a handoff at 19.

The journey began on a grass field five time zones away. He and his freshman roommate signed up for the team at the University of West England in Bristol, sure they would soon enough move on to something different.

But Saro’s legs never stopped churning. He starred for four years in the college ranks — the last three as a running back, where he would find his future.

Type Saro’s name into an Internet search engine. The links are likely to direct you to the British American Football League homepage. You’ll learn that Saro, 28, was something of a superstar once.

Even the recent articles rave mostly about the past. About the four seasons he spent with the Bristol Aztecs, a semipro team he led to consecutive BAFL finals. About the imprint he made three years ago in the Division II championship game, rushing for 248 yards as the Aztecs rolled to their second title.

It was only a matter of time before NFL Europe took notice. Saro finally found his way into the league after several vain attempts, signing with the Scottish Claymores before the 2004 season.

Maybe he shouldn’t have.

“I was a punching bag,” Saro says of his time in NFL Europe, where he dressed for a few games but never played, used primarily as an asset on the scout squat.

Another road opened in 2005. Saro was selected by the Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz in af2’s International Player Draft, after the club had studied his game film and reviewed his résumé. Saro couldn’t wait to get on a plane to Sooner Country, eager to embrace the other brand of American football.

He seemed a perfect fit.

Af2’s international player development program has been in place for three seasons. It is a means to expand arena football — the planting of a seed, so that maybe the sport can form roots one day in places such as Europe and Asia.

The program can be a bonus for teams that draft the right guy. Game-day rosters are limited to 19 spots, but a 20th body is allowed so long as it’s international. A player with credentials is an extra chess piece, freeing coaches to tinker with personnel.

At least, it can be.

Saro didn’t see the field once in Oklahoma City, leaving him to wonder why he got drafted in the first place. The 5-foot-11, 245-pound newcomer felt deprived, like a foreign exchange student never allowed to take a test.

Then came another opportunity. Florida coach Kevin Bouis, looking for a player to use on kickoff coverage, accepted Saro with open arms. He made him feel at home.

Of course, it wasn’t all Bouis. A change in af2’s substitution rules came in the offseason. A player could now be utilized as a special teams presence without being required to play offense or defense. So Saro fit right in.

Finally.

“He’s been a model citizen,” Bouis says. “I know he wants to play more, like any competitor does. But he’s accepted his role with us.”

Saro isn’t easy to spot. He has entered the game just once as a linebacker — he injured his ankle on the play — and Florida is overloaded with talented ball carriers.

His mark is made as a wedge-buster, responsible for taking out blockers when Florida kicks off. There is little glory involved, but Saro doesn’t mind the grind.

And he’s certainly had his moments. Saro, who ranks ninth on the team with 13 tackles, made five stops and forced a fumble in Florida’s rout of Tennessee Valley on June 3, the one time this year he was impossible to overlook.

“You just play your role,” Saro says. “It’s part of putting the team first.”

Blowing up blockers isn’t for everyone, either. It takes a player with discipline and toughness. A player with no fear. A player who simply hates to lose.

Maybe that’s why Saro is such a natural. Ask any teammate who has been his rival in NCAA Football 2006 on PlayStation 2. There’s always a rematch if Saro falls short.

“That’s when you see a different side of him,” says Florida rookie Deon Dyer, who spent part of the season as the reticent import’s Best Western roommate. “He likes to cry a lot when you beat him.”

Dyer was joking, of course. Saro is more concerned with beating odds than beating his teammates. His dream is to play on Sundays — like everybody else’s — but even the next step seems a long shot, as far off as a flight home.

Only one international player has made a game-day roster in the Arena Football League. Japanese receiver Mutsumi Takahashi, who got his start with af2’s Cincinnati Swarm, played in one game this spring for the New York Dragons, catching four passes for 63 yards on the final weekend of the regular season.

That’s the lone success story. Former Kansas City Chiefs running back Christian Okoye was one heck of a trailblazer, but not even The Nigerian Nightmare started here.

Saro’s next move?

He has covered too much ground to turn the other way, so he’ll just continue his pursuit of the American dream.

Wedges can be broken.

So, too, can barriers.

“I want to see where this takes me,” he says. “I’m not going to sell myself short.”

Conquest (5-8) at Firecats (10-3)

-- What: Albany Conquest at Florida Firecats

-- When: Tonight, 7:30

-- Where: Germain Arena

-- Radio: WGUF/FM 98.9

-- Storylines: The Firecats can clinch the South Division title with a win and a Memphis loss. ... Albany has surrendered 70 points in three of five games, including Louisville’s 86-66 victory on June 17 in New York’s capital city. ... Florida, which averages 59.5 points per game, has the No. 1 scoring offense in af2. ... The Firecats and Conquest have never met.