Online Reporter
DREAMING of footballing stardom, two promising youngsters pose for their academy’s team photo.
But while one will kick off the new season aiming for Premier League glory with Manchester City, the other will be in a prison cell.
The different paths taken by England and City midfielder Elliot Anderson and his former teammate Ewan Ireland could not be starker.
Elliot starred for England in this year’s World Cup, when the Three Lions came within a whisker of their first final for 60 years, and also secured a £116million transfer to the Etihad.
Ireland, meanwhile, could only follow the tournament on TV in the prison wing where he is serving life for the brutal murder of a random stranger.
Yet this newly-discovered team photo of the pair from 2010 — when they were both aged around nine and playing for Newcastle United’s academy team — shows how it might all have been so different for Ireland.
Those familiar with the North East’s youth football scene say he could even have eclipsed Elliot’s achievements. He was considered a better prospect, and so promising that he was compared to the young Paul Gascoigne.
One scout said: “It’s bewildering when you look at the way things worked out for two lads who were incredibly talented. You have to wonder how things went so wrong for Ewan.
“He was a cracking player, one of the best from that cohort, but he went in the wrong direction while Elliot got stuck in, worked hard and let his natural talent flourish.
“Elliot was a great kid, a leader even from an early age, and it was no surprise to anyone that he succeeded in the game.
“He deserves every bit of the adulation he’s now getting and he was worth his place in any side at the World Cup.
“But Ewan could have been there alongside him.
“He had the talent but lost his way so badly, and ultimately what he did was unforgivable. He ruined his own life as well.”
A football coach who worked with Ireland as a youngster added: “He was compared to Gazza, he was incredible. Everyone in the football community knew of Ewan Ireland because he was outstanding. “It’s such a waste. He was the best player at the Newcastle United Academy.
“I can remember watching him and thinking, ‘This is the best kid I have ever seen’.
“He was unbelievable when he had a football at his feet, but he had a lot of problems off the pitch.”
As Elliot’s star rose thanks to his dogged determination to make it at the top level, Ireland drifted into a life of crime.
He was released by the academy around 2015 for disruptive behaviour and was excluded from his school shortly after. He was also kicked out of a local football club for taking a knife to training and clocked up a series of convictions, including chasing his own mother with a knife and throwing ammonia in a girl’s face. On August 14, 2019, he crossed paths with solicitor Peter Duncan as the dad walked through Newcastle city centre on his way to catch a bus home after work.
Elliot has continued to be exceptional at every stage of his career and is set to continue bringing joy to millions of City and England fans for years to come. Meanwhile, all his former teammate has done is bring endless heartache to an innocent man’s family and friends. —Sun.
