Читать книгу Goals to Gold - Lee Sandford - Страница 19

As soon as I turned 16, I signed my apprentice contract with Portsmouth and left school without looking back. It was one of the proudest moments of my life, turning up at Portsmouth Football Club’s ground, Fratton Park, for my very first day as a professional footballer along with all the other lads who were starting that season. We already knew each other because we’d all been playing on schoolboy contracts for the youth team for a couple of years, so there was a great atmosphere; it was incredibly exciting.

Mum and dad drove me to the ground and I was taken to the boardroom along with the other new apprentices to sign all the paperwork and complete the formalities, which included having our photos taken. We were all wearing our best suits and feeling very grown up.

We all got a signing fee of £200. I gave my fee to mum and dad; I knew they wanted a new stereo and it would help to pay for that. I wanted to show them how grateful I was; they’d helped make my dream of becoming a professional footballer come true. I could never thank them enough for that. As they drove away, I had a real lump in my throat and a tear in my eye. Up to this point in my life, they’d always been there; now, for the first time in my life, I was alone. I was a professional, a grown up, I had to knuckle down and do my apprenticeship. I was excited, but more than a little nervous.

I shared my first digs with my mate, Brendan O’Connell, an Irish lad who’d grown up in London. He was cool. We had so many laughs together and with the family we lived with. We got a weekly wage of £26 and I felt rich. All our living expenses – basically food and board – were paid for by the club, so the £26 was just spending money. It went pretty far in those days.

The main objective was to work towards getting a professional contract; that was the goal of every apprentice. At the start, I was just happy to be there. I couldn’t believe I was getting paid, every week, for doing something I loved. I knew I was fortunate in that. I never took it for granted.

So that was it. At the age of 16, I left school and started the next adventure of my life, as an apprentice at Portsmouth Football Club. That’s where I met one of the greatest mentors of my life: Alan Ball.