Archie and Harry Gray’s brotherly bond

Young Lions duo Archie and Harry Gray are reunited at St. George’s Park, having reported for duty in Burton at the home of the England teams.

It’s the first time they have bumped into each other, as Harry explained, while on England camp, with Archie called up to the latest under-21s squad and Harry making the under-19s.

They have already admitted they are ‘extremely competitive’ but which one of them would they say was the more promising footballer when they were kids?

“Harry!” said Archie. “He was scoring goals.”

Twenty-year-old Archie is 17-year-old Harry’s senior. The pair also have two other younger brothers.

Both siblings began their professional careers with Leeds United – where Harry is still on the books – with Archie’s senior debut for the West Yorkshire club coming at 17, while Harry just toppled that achievement when he made his first team bow at 16. And it’s always been that way.

“We were extremely competitive,” recalled Archie. “We’d just kick lumps out of each other, to be honest, when we were younger. One of us would run in crying, that’s always how it ended!”

Football is in their DNA. Dad Andy, a former Scotland international, played for the likes of Leeds United, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United and Bradford City.

Grandad Frank, who both played and managed, clocked close to 400 games for Leeds and won the European cup with Forest.

And their great-uncle Eddie dedicated the entirety of his playing career to the Whites during the 1960s and 1970s, twice managing the club.

“It’s pretty surreal, the amount of people we’ve had in the family that have played for Leeds,” explained Archie.

“Everyone’s come through Leeds’ academy. Eddie’s got an unbelievable legacy there which is something that people dream of, playing for that long at a top level.”

“Every time I see them, they’re telling me stories,” agreed Harry. “I went to quite a few clubs before I was nine, then signed at Leeds at nine. I’ve since been on loan twice.

“It’s all I know. There wasn’t really any other choice! Every day is football, football, football. That’s what I love doing.”

And despite the three-year age gap between the two of them, aside from kickabouts in the garden, they have lined up together before.

“I played with Archie once in the under-13s [at Leeds] – that was quite cool,” remembered Harry. “He was under-16s and I was under-13s and we played against Leicester. That’s the only time.

“We got lucky because at the age groups at Leeds, you play the same teams at the same venue so my dad would drive us both there and watch the first half of either of our games and the second half of the other.”

With their lineage, it was inevitable that the duo were boyhood Leeds fans, attending games and watching their favourite players from the sidelines before living out their childhood dreams and going on to represent the club.

“I went to literally every single Leeds game every week, home and away, with my little brother,” explained Archie.

“I remember watching Sam Byram. I walked out with Sam Byram when I was a little kid as a mascot and then I played with him – he was my teammate two or three years ago.”

But as they’ve got older, their paths have diverged. Archie’s breakthrough season came in 2023-24 when he featured 52 times in all competitions for Leeds as they reached the Championship play-off final, going on to make the switch to Tottenham Hotspur on the back of that campaign.

“I learned so much that year,” said Archie. “My teammates helped me so much; the manager helped me so much and I’m just grateful that he played me. It’s not easy to play a young player every week, especially when they’re learning things on the job which I was.”

Harry, on the other hand, spent last season on loan to League One side Rotherham United, scoring five times in 22 games.

And this term, he headed back out on loan from Leeds to EFL Sheffield Wednesday.

“I loved it last year at Rotherham,” said Harry, who watches Archie’s games for Spurs on the bus to and from his games. “It was tough but I was playing every game. It’s competitive, you’re playing for people’s jobs and it means more to people. There’s more expectation and I enjoy that.”

But there’s always been some synergy to their careers, from their Leeds connections to their England pathways.

Last summer, while Archie was a part of Lee Carsley’s 2025 UEFA U21 EURO-winning team, Harry was competing at the UEFA U17 EUROs out in Albania.

“It’s one of my favourite memories [winning the U21 EUROs], definitely,” said Archie. “I loved every single second of it.

“Playing for your country is something different to playing for your club. Being so young, I was desperate to come here and desperate to express myself and show people what I can do, and it’s still like that now.”

And both brothers are in action this evening with their respective England sides.

The MU21s continue their 2027 UEFA U21 EURO qualification campaign, taking on Kazakhstan at Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Molineux Stadium, while the MU19s host the Republic of Ireland at St. George’s Park in the first of four fixtures.