Conor Coady has had a long, successful career at the highest level.
He has represented England, been part of a World Cup squad and has tallied up 198 Premier League appearances.
However, none of it would have been possible without Coady’s first experience of grassroots football, which came at Rainford Rangers FC.
Coady explained his grassroots story in an interview with our partners, Inside The Game.
He said: “I couldn’t really put an age [that I started playing football] on it — as young as I can remember. As far back as I can remember, my dad always had me with a ball. I always played footy around the house. The first opportunity he had to take me to a team, he did. I grew up in St Helens, and he took me to Rainford Rangers.
“I haven’t got an actual first memory. I remember playing in the garden, going out in the park. Playing for Rainford Rangers is the first time I remember playing grassroots footy. I’d have gone in there from about five or six.
“I was always playing a year above. I loved doing it. Then when I went to school later down the line, all the lads who I played with were in a year or two above me.
“I had a little spell at Marine as well, then I got picked up by Liverpool and Everton, I was training at both. Then at nine years old I had to decide who to sign for. I grew up a Liverpool fan, everybody knows that, and so I signed for them.
“I was lucky enough to keep on going, enjoying my footy, going a lot of nights a week, my mum and dad took me everywhere.”
Asked if he knew he was ahead of the curve while playing at Rainford, Coady insisted that never came into his thinking.
“I never thought [I was the best]. I had a coach when I was younger, I still see him every now and then,” he said.
“He tells me stories about when he first saw me play, but I never really understood playing higher [ages] up. I was just playing footy.
“It was only years after when I thought to myself that I was only a baby and I was playing with eight and nine year olds.”
Coady did not have it all his own way, though.
In fact, he was faced with the prospect of being let go by Liverpool when he was 14.
However, he found a way to dig into his reserves and prove he belonged at the club.
“When you’re a young kid you don’t understand it, you’re just playing footy, and I was lucky to do it with a Liverpool kit on and play with a smile on my face,” Coady explained.
“I got told when I was 14, that they were letting me go. When you’re 14, everything’s changing, and I was probably struggling at the time, and I was told either they were letting me go or I had a few months to prove myself.
“But from that moment, I kicked on a little bit. Whether it was me who did it or just realised I had to kick on, I started doing really well and that conversation kind of just got forgotten about. I managed to sign a scholarship when I was 16 and then you go full-time.
“The biggest thing about it, is footy was my life at 14. It was just footy. So when I was told I couldn’t go there and play footy anymore, I realised I had to start playing a bit better or I’d have to leave.
“I must have played better, because a few months down the line, nothing ever got mentioned, I got into the Under-15s, and that was a big thing. You just feel a little bit more like a footy player. Games at night, having boots left for you — it felt like proper footy.”
Coady also knows his “busy” approach to getting everything he could out of his opportunity to play for Liverpool’s academy was what put him in good stead for the rest of his career.
“On a Tuesday and Thursday mornings or afternoons, we’d go and train with the Under 18s, then be back at school,” he added.
“[During school holidays] we’d be in all day. I was probably a bit busy — all the lads used to cane me a bit, because I’d do a bit extra or get in a bit earlier, stay a bit later. But it’s probably helped me to this day because I still do the same now.
“I used to love it. I didn’t need time off, I was happy on the pitch with my boots on.
“We’d do school at the same time, we’d have to go to college too, but it was everything I wanted and more, just playing footy every day.
“Footy’s about training and working all week to win a game on a Saturday or Sunday. That’s all it’s about. I learned that then.”