James Garner's grassroots story

My first memory of football goes way back because my brother, who's five years older, played football, so as soon as I could walk, I was kicking a ball in the back garden with my brother.

I started playing with my local team, Stork FC, around the age of five or six. I was probably better than most of the kids my age, so I started playing for the older lads, who were a year or two above.

Stork FC was where I got picked up by United and Everton. I was playing for Stork in local tournaments and I got scouted by a few teams but ultimately decided to go to United.

I began playing for United around the age of six or seven. It’s almost like a trial before the actual trial. It’s like a mini-kickers kind of thing. There are six, seven, or eight of them across the country and then two or three of you from each development centre would get selected to go to The Cliff for your proper trial.

I also played football at my primary school, Millfields. I remember this one thing we used to do every summer where our caretaker used to organise a World Cup with mixed teams of year four, five and six pupils. 

You would put your name in the bucket and we would have games during break time and lunchtime. It was like a proper tournament with a mix of the year groups. I used to win that pretty much every year because I was obviously better than most people and they were great memories.

My secondary school was South Wirral High School. I only played a few games for the school because I was at United at the time and I lived in the Wirral so to get to Manchester after school was a good hour already. Our school team was really good, though. We would smash most teams.

Fast forward to this season and it's a big summer ahead with the Under-21 EURO.

This season was personally tough for me because I was injured for the majority of it. I had never had a proper injury during my short career so far, so signing for a new club and then getting injured straight away was tough. But the back end of the season was good, getting a run of games and staying in the Premier League.

As for the U21 EURO, it is up to us what happens now because I think we’ve got the talent and the experience to go all the way and win. 

When I reflect on my days playing grassroots football, my advice to kids would be to just keep playing and keep your love for the game. Just keep trying to get better each day, each week, and nothing’s impossible.

Keep the belief that you can become what you want to become one day because if you really want it, you can get it.