Has anyone's child only found friends when they were older?

[Magnificen]

DS17 is lovely. He's funny and kind and intelligent but very self conscious and socially awkward.
He has struggled to fit in or have any friends through infants/juniors/high school. We had big hopes of him making friends at college but he has met noone new.
We've talked about joining groups but he's so shy and self conscious he won't.

I'm hoping maybe as he gets older he will become less self conscious and so more confident?

I'm so upset for him. Has anyone any positive stories of their kids only finding friends once they got to uni?
I'm panicking that if he doesn't make friends at uni he will never have any.

He has lots of friends online gaming but none in real life.

I think yes, but it will rely on him being willing to join a group at uni.

My dd had a group of friends, but not brilliant through secondary, but made some close friends at uni through the theatre.
Before he goes have a chat to him about different things that he could do. Something like theatre is good for working as a team. If he's into computer games then he could look at the technical side (what my dd did) which is often looking for people, or if he doesn't fancy that, then backstage shifting props is again always needed.
Sometimes there's fun sports teams, or interest groups.
But he will still have to make an effort to go and get known.

One of the problems I see with online gaming friends, is that people can feel that is enough so they don't need to make the effort in RL.

A work setup could help. I found friends through restaurant and bar work.