There can’t have been many 17-year-old footballers who have knocked on the manager’s door at Charlton Athletic impatiently asking why they are not playing in the first-team.
But, then again, Lee Bowyer was anything but a normal player.
He was right about being ready, even at that young age. Twenty-two months after his Addicks debut, in July 1996, he joined Leeds United for a fee of £2.8million, a record transfer fee at that time for a teenager. Bowyer, 19, signed a five-year contract.
“He’s got the look of Denis Law about him, although I don’t want to give Lee a specific tag because he is an individual talent,” enthused Leeds boss Howard Wilkinson. “But he is the best young player I’ve seen for a long time.”
Every player has a beginning. This is Bowyer’s story. He started at Senrab, an east London club that also helped produce elite talents like Sol Campbell, Ledley King, John Terry, Ashley Cole and Ezri Konsa.
Lee Bowyer in action against Swindon Town in a League Cup tie in September 1994 – his debut for the Addicks/Picture: Tom Morris
“I got picked up by West Ham when I was about seven,” Bowyer told South London Sport: Charlton Athletic Edition. “I was there for three years and then went to Arsenal. I was there for maybe four or five years. They released me because I was too small. That is when I ended up at Charlton, around 14 or 15.”
Bowyer also trialled with Norwich after being let go by the Gunners but chose the Addicks.
“When I left school at 16 I became a YTS,” he said. “I had John Cartwright as my coach and I played a year above my age group. You had players like Paul Linger, bless him, he is no longer with us, Shaun Newton, Richard Rufus, Danny Mills and Paul Sturgess. They were a year older than me.
“Everything was football with John – playing out from the back. Because I was small and younger than those lads, he would play me in a sweeper role, behind two centre-halves. I’d step out and play. That was how I broke my nose for the first time, playing for the youth team at Sparrows Lane. We were playing West Ham. I went to make a sliding tackle from the side and someone put their arm up to hold me off.
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