Jack Rodwell Quotes

At school, I was always a central midfielder from a young age. Then, when I joined Villa at 16, the pre-season didn't go too well, so they looked at me as a centre-half.

I got my first taste of real professional football on loan at Northampton. I was 18 at the time, and I played only nine games, but it was a massive opportunity for me.

In Holland you go into amateur teams, come up through the ranks and are generally spotted for senior or professional football. At 16, I had made it into a men's amateur team, and was picked up professionally from there.

Dele Alli is probably the perfect example. He played loads of games for MK Dons at a young age. He got a move and kicked on from there because he had that experience behind him.

There has been a great list of players who cut their teeth in Europe.

Canada hasn't really been a top footballing country in the world, but I think the next generation of players coming through, I think we can really change that.

When I first arrived at Napoli, I was the ball boy, which meant that I got to watch as the legends trained. Then, once I joined the youth team as a young teenager, I was a midfielder just like Tardelli.

If we are encouraging kids to go into academies, then presumably we are selling them the dream that they can play first-team football.

For me, playing through all the youth teams at Borussia Dortmund was a really good experience because I was able to play against talented opponents at a relatively early age.

Des Bulpin discovered me and, along with my dad, would be the biggest influence on my career. I remember him telling me when I was 15 that Jermain Defoe and I would play together for England when we were older, and he hasn't been too far wrong.

Me being at Coventry, instead of a big Premier League club, probably helped me develop. You don't get put in the academy system, playing Under-18s and Under-23s.

The quality of our academy system is very high, as good as anything in the world. Around the country, lots of people in youth development are keen to get together and find a solution to that 17-to-21 age bracket and how we get those players playing.

Maybe we have more young English players than people sometimes think. They just need a chance to show their ability.

I was a promising keeper as a kid and, at 15 and 16, was on the books of Crewe Alexandra.

I started playing full-equipment football when I was 6 years old. My mom actually got me started in it.

Whether Under-17 level, the 21s, or senior team, it's my dream to play for England as often as I can.

I began my journey as a 16-year-old boy at the Arsenal's academy, trying to one day become a first team player, going out for evening runs in East Barnet with Jack Wilshere.

Coming through the youth ranks at Fulham is a great honour to me.

Obviously, everyone looks at whether we bring young footballers into the first team, that's one of the goals. But I wouldn't discard someone who is successful in life, that's big. The hall of fame in the academy should be a wide variety of stories.

To be honest, from England Under-16s, through the 17s and 18s, really all the way through my youth career, I played at centre-half. For some reason, when I made my debut at Everton, I just played in central midfield, and it went from there.

I got scouted at six by Everton. My parents said it was maybe a bit too young. A year later, I went down to trials at Everton and have been there ever since.

I signed as an 11-year-old for Everton. I broke into the Under-18s at the age of 14, then the reserves at 15, then I was in the first-team squad at 16.

A lot of the guys who played in the 1995 final for Ajax had been there since the age of 12 or 13. Patrick Kluivert and Edgar Davids had been there from age seven or eight, so I had a lot of catching up to do.

In India, the key is to start at the base and start very young. We need professionally trained talent, talent that wants to make football their career, and people must see football as a strong professional career option.

I started lower down the leagues with Coventry, so I'd had that taste of first-team action at a young age. I'd already played 40 or 50 games before moving on, and when I got to Norwich, I had to bide my time at the start.