It was like a 13-year-old hitting it.
There would still be around 20 minutes until the start of the training session.
Yet, one young boy would already be honing his skills.
He would be hitting the ball at a bin outside the door. With both feet.
It would only be his warm-up.
“We used to do little shooting games in which you would try to create a little bit of space and get a shot off but we’d go in net because we didn’t have goalkeepers in the development centres”, Mark Senior remembers. “Me and the other coach Gabriel would go in net and you could feel it when Mason hit it.
“Most kids at seven years of age, you would let it in to give them a bit of confidence. But Mason would smash it in the bottom corner and if he did hit it at you you’d know about it. It was like a 13-year-old hitting it.”
Mason Greenwood was born in Bradford – depending on traffic, about an hour away from Old Trafford. He first started playing organised football closer to home, though. Aged six, he joined one of Manchester United’s 46 development centres in Halifax. A 15-minute drive.
Soon, he would be travelling additionally to Salford every Sunday to play small-sided games with and against his peers from other club development centres.
Senior, an ex-coach at both the United Academy and the Halifax development centre, spoke about young Greenwood in great detail upon the now-teenager’s first-team debut last year.
QUICK LEARNER
“When Mason Greenwood came in at six, he could use both feet equally as strong”, Senior told the Manchester Evening News. “He was absolutely rapid. As soon as you showed him a little trick or anything he would just do it straight away.
“We started really advancing him and as soon as you’d show him a new move or skill, within 30 seconds to a minute he’d be doing it already.”
ATHLETE
“I’ve not seen another player like him. His style means his pace is deceptive because he is absolutely rapid.
“I think he turned up at a Great Britain under-13 100m sprint race and broke the Great Britain record. All the athletics people were after him at one point. Athletically he’s unbelievable.”
ENVIRONMENT
“When they came it was about just letting them play and trying tricks, trying dribbles. Whereas most clubs would go the opposite way by thinking football as a team sport requires that players are drilled into passing and playing in a specific position. At United it was the polar opposite and obviously it worked.
“You’re teaching the kids to be greedy, really, but in a nice way. It was about not letting them be scared of losing games or losing the ball. Straight from the word go, if they made a mistake no-one corrected them.”
ATTITUDE
“Mason always conducted himself very well but also had not an arrogance but a confidence about him. You need it. You could always tell with Mason that he would get to where he wanted to go.
“We never did man-of-the-match awards because you lose all intrinsic motivation from it. Does Mason have the right sort of attitude? He will have because he never had that trophy for just playing on a Sunday morning. They didn’t need it, all they needed was to play the game.”
COACHING
“We’re chuffed to bits that he’s doing what he’s doing but I don’t think it’s down to the coaching necessarily. He was going to be a player. If we’ve given him 0.5% help then that’s fine.
“The guys that used to work there eight or nine years ago keep in touch and we all sent each other a text message about that, saying ‘the first one’s come through’. But we always knew that he would. We said if he doesn’t make it then we probably need to pack it all in. He was always the obvious candidate.”
Top bins.
In the picture: Mason Greenwood has been affiliated to Manchester United since the age of six (found here)
BREAKTHROUGH 