Image source, Reddish Vulcans
- Author, Emma Smith
- Role, BBC Sport journalist
As England’s players prepare for the final of Euro 2024, the impact of their achievements in Germany are being readily felt back home at the clubs where their journeys began.
The youth teams where Harry Kane, Phil Foden and Kobbie Mainoo have been watching on with a mixture of pride, and slight frazzlement as they deal with an influx of interest from what Richard Hubbard of Cheadle & Gatley JFC calls ‘Mainoo Mania’.
Mainoo played for Cheadle and Gatley in the 2011-12 season when he was just six years old, before joining the Manchester United academy. Hubbard, who is club treasurer and has been involved with the team for 30 years, remembers the now-England midfielder well.
“Kobbie was a naturally gifted young player, a miniature version of the player you see today,” he told BBC Sport.
“We’d only let him play with his left foot because he was so good. We wanted to put extra challenges on him.
“We call it Mainoo Mania. Every time he does something it makes you incredibly proud. We’ve got 750 kids and every time we speak to a kid or parent it is about England, the Euros and Kobbie.”
The stories of the England stars of today blazing a trail through their youth teams is a common one. Joe Makin, who is the chairman and runs the soccer school of Stockport-based Reddish Vulcans, remembers the exploits of a certain Phil Foden, aged seven.
Makin, who has also been involved with his club as a volunteer for three decades, recalls Foden as a small and quiet child who simply loved to play football – and soon learned to evade the rough tackles of the bigger boys “like an athlete over hurdles”.
“He was just something different from day one. Control, movement, change of direction were frightening, even then,” he said.
“It wasn’t just his skill, he won games. We’d been rehearsing a training routine, and had plans to try and use it in a match – but needed a couple of goals as a cushion if it didn’t work. So we pulled Phil aside, and said to score a couple of goals and we could give it a try.
“Straight from the kick-off, he goes around players and scores. No celebration, just a big smile on his face. Restart, we win the ball back, and he really slaloms around players and slots in the corner. Two parents standing behind me said, you’d pay to watch this. That was Phil.”
‘Kane was a brilliant goalkeeper’
Image source, Getty Images
A couple of years earlier, down in London, future England captain Harry Kane was taking his first steps in the world of football with Chingford-based Ridgeway Rovers, where he played before joining Arsenal’s academy in 2004.
Kane’s early years are littered with sliding doors moments – not only did he initially join Arsenal before later moving to north London rivals Spurs’ academy, but instead of being England’s number nine he could have been their number one.
“When Harry first turned up in the early 2000s, aged seven or eight, he volunteered to go in goal,” Ridgeway Rovers chairman Ian Marshall told BBC Sport. “The coach was just pleased to find a volunteer. Most of the kids at that age want to play outfield.
“He was brilliant in goal, we had to be persuaded to put him outfield – but he turned out to be brilliant there too.”
Marshall joined Rovers after Kane had left, but stories of the boy who would be king have persisted into Ridgeway legend.
Image source, Ridgeway Rovers
“I did some work with his school teachers, they told me he played a cup game where he scored a hat-trick in the semi-final,” Marshall says.
“They dropped him off, then saw him out in a different tracksuit going for a run, he was working on his fitness. He has always been that sort of character.”
Marshall says Kane has not forgotten his Ridgeway roots since becoming a professional, saying he gets “the occasional thumbs up on social media” when talking about the club.
Marshall took over as chairman in 2011, and his first day on the job was the club’s trophy presentation. His choice of guest presenter was 17-year-old Kane, which, while it now looks like a remarkable coup, did not go down so well at the time.
“One parent, she was really unappreciative of the fact she didn’t know him,” he recalls. “I had to explain he was a professional footballer. I said: ‘He’s Harry Kane, if you haven’t heard of him you soon will.’
“We see a bit of Harry, he lives a bit further away now – Munich – but he has a place near here in the posh part of Hampstead. About a year ago, for his exhibition at the Museum of London, he invited 35 players from the club – under strict instructions that we didn’t say he would be there. It was a jaw dropper for them.
“I have no doubt if he wins the trophy on Sunday, he will come down and show it. He’s much loved by the club.”
‘Their gang, if you like, is us’
Image source, Cheadle Catholic Primary
That connection between England players and their youth clubs is hugely beneficial to these amateur, volunteer-run teams. Makin says Reddish Vulcans youngsters will occasionally ask him if Foden really did play for their team, as they’ve just unboxed his card on Fifa.
It is the same for Mainoo with Cheadle and Gatley too. “Kobbie was with us for a short time, we played only a very small part in his journey,” says Hubbard. “But Kobbie always mentions us as where he started, which is an awesome feeling.
“He’s 19 and educated in the area, so there’s still a real connection. I was speaking to the headmistress of Cheadle Catholic Primary [Mainoo’s old school], he went back two months ago. He just went back in unannounced and spoke to the PE teacher, gave him a massive hug, and the teacher said it was like going back 12 years, with that smile on Kobbie’s face.”
The importance of these youth teams, providing a platform for young players before they are picked up by academies, is undeniable in the education of the first male English players to reach a major senior tournament final on foreign soil.
But all three men agree that these clubs are under more pressure than ever, as the time and resources of the volunteers on who they are dependent becomes more scarce than ever.
“Post-covid, there has been a generational change,” says Hubbard. “People’s time has become so pressured, not just in football but other volunteering groups. The next generation aren’t coming through, so hopefully this will inspire people.”
Image source, Getty Images
“We have had difficulties,” agrees Makin, who jokes that he is actually only 25 years old and volunteering has caused him to prematurely age.
“Generally how it works is a soccer school will get boys together, but from ages seven to 11 they need parents to step forward, do first aid training, take coaching badges – it does take a commitment, as you are there every weekend.
“We have parents as coaches in every age group, we always want that involvement. When you have 9am kick offs in February, you look out the window and the rain is coming down sideways, you need commitment and a reason to be there.”
But these youth teams provide far more than just a proving ground for the next Kane, Foden or Mainoo, says Marshall.
“I’ve had some brilliant experiences with my kids here,” says Marshall, who has had three children go through Ridgeway Rovers as players. “I’ve spent more time with them than I would if I wasn’t playing the football.
“I do it because I like doing it – and for keeping kids off the streets. We know what is going on for 17, 18 year olds. But their gang, if you like, is us.
“I knew a kid in a team I was running was being used to hold things on certain estates. In the end, we got him playing football, got him out of that environment, now he is at university.
“It’s an extra help for the children in their lives – it’s not just a game.”