I’m assuming most people here have had a dreams of playing in cup final scoring the winner and such
So how far did you get to reaching such dreams
Did you reach academy levels l or high
I thought of this question because I’ve one of dad’s "oh I could played pro if it wasn’t for my shit knees
I played for a few teams around the isthmian League including Sutton United. I played a few games for my county and also got a game for the FA Colts, a select team from schools in London that played in a friendly vs Eton school. One of my teams had a run to the FA Vase semis and I was a non playing part of the Sutton squad ( I was young) when they beat Coventry and went to Norwich (did not go well).
My Sunday team won the county cup a couple of times. I know I got scouted a few times and trained with Crystal Palace youth but it never amounted to an offer.
One of the issues was that I never had a settled position. I literally could play everywhere. I even suited up in goal for an isthmian league game ( used to be the diadora league) when we had 3 goalies out and the goalie we had for an away game hurt himself in the warm up. My best position was probably center mid but I was left footed and quick so naturally I was asked to play out wide or as striker.
I remember playing some famous names. Dennis Wise and a lot of the crazy gang. Alan Pardew, John Salako, Richard Shaw from Palace. Our Sunday morning team played in a league where one or two teams had players affiliated to Wimbledon. For some reason, Daley Thompson played a couple of times against us. He was rapid! We had a very good Sunday team, with lots of players who had been youth team players at various pro clubs in the area. We would attract a lot of scouts.
Daley Thompson was very keen to have a go at football when he was in his late 30’s. He even played against my team for Ilkeston.
I cannot describe how quick he was. I was a sub 11 sec 100 mètre runner at school. He was so much quicker. I remember I was asked to play center back / sweeper when we played him! Did okay, he was strong but his touch wasn’t great and I figured I could nip in front of him and steal the ball. There were a couple of balls hits over the top that I had head starts on and I was sliding to just barely get touches as he caught me up. He didn’t score but they were always tough games.