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From Yeboah's shirt to scoring at 16

James Milner was just 16 and earning £70 a week as a YTS player when he broke into the first team at Leeds, six months after taking his GCSE exams.

On 10 November 2002, his dad Peter was in the away end at Upton Park when boss Terry Venables sent the youngster on for Jason Wilcox, now director of football at Manchester United, in the final minutes of a 4-3 win against West Ham.

It was a dream come true for Milner, who had grown up supporting the club and wore shirts with the names of Tony Yeboah and Tony Dorigo on the back.

Six weeks after the West Ham game, Milner - aged 16 years and 356 days - became the youngest Premier League goalscorer at that time when he scored in a 2-1 win against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

It was not enough to get the former Leeds season ticket-holder out of his post-match duties, however.

Back then YTS players were expected to clean the dressing room after first-team games.

"Even when I was playing and scoring goals, after games I was helping the kit man pick dirty shirts off the dressing room floor," Milner told the High Performance podcast, external in 2023.

"I carried on cleaning the under-18 captain's boots. I was playing in the first team but he was still older than me."

It was not long, however, before Milner was sent on loan to the third tier of English football to continue his football education.

By the time he arrived at Swindon Town, Milner had made 18 Premier League appearances, scored a couple of goals and, despite his tender years, was already revered by Leeds fans.