In an age in which we continue to hear so much about our ‘anxious generation’, it’s heartening to read about one young individual who hasn’t been incapacitated by angst.
We live in a time when whole swathes of young people believe they are mentally ill-equipped to face the demands and rigours of the outside world – it was revealed on Tuesday, for example, that the number of people diagnosed with ADHD receiving disability benefits had increased by 40 per cent since Labour came to power. So we should be encouraged by the story of one man who hasn’t quailed when confronted with life’s inevitable challenges.
Through a dedicated regime of self improvement he pulled himself up through sheer perseverance: Gordon became an avid reader of motivational books and incorporated boxing into his strict physical regime
Step forward the footballer Anthony Gordon, the England left-winger, aged 25. His star performance in the previous World Cup clash against Mexico, and his ethos and life story so far, should serve as example to all people his age and below. Indeed, it’s a lesson for all of us, irrespective of vintage, who sometimes forget that life is essentially hard and necessarily involves overcoming obstacles.
Few spectators will forget Gordon’s role in that 3-2 triumph over the hosts: his felling in the penalty area after yet another dash deep into enemy territory earned England a crucial spot-kick. Indeed, his performance that evening was a microcosm of the team as a whole, in which England showed fortitude and backbone in a punishing last 20 minutes as the Mexicans threw everything at them.
It was a fitting coming of age for a Liverpudlian whose upbringing was marked by persistence and refusing to be dissuaded by disadvantage. Gordon grew up in a working-class area of city, and from the outset his talents seemed obvious to everyone around him. As Steven Griffin, his former PE teacher at Alsop High School in Walton, told the Times earlier this week: ‘The tactic for the school team when he was playing was always: Give it to Gordo… He was incredible at everything: we had him taking corners, throw-ins, goal kicks. We built the team around him.’
Life wasn’t easy in a rough area in which he grew up. ‘I was born in a place called Norris Green in Liverpool and then moved to Walton,’ he reflects today. ‘Both areas where a lot of things go wrong – but it made me who I am and created a very strong character and fire in me to get out of that area and want better for my family.’
Even the playing pitches of his youth were in state of neglect. As Griffin says: ‘I remember one game specifically, against Calderstones School, the pitch was so wobbly it would make you seasick just looking at it but Anthony breezed past payers with incredible ball control. We won the game 10-2 or 10-3. I think he scored eight of them.’
Yet despite his innate gifts and footballing nous the young Gordon wasn’t blessed with the physical attributes to match. ‘He was quite bony and fragile as a boy’, recalls the scout Ian Duke, the man who first alerted Gordon’s local club, Everton, to his talent. Most crucially, he lacked staying power. The former Everton defender David Unsworth also remembers: ‘He was a matchwinner and he played a lot on the left, but he would just die on 60 minutes.’
Yet through a dedicated regime of self improvement he pulled himself up through sheer perseverance: Gordon became an avid reader of motivational books and incorporated boxing into his strict physical regime. Those who have witnessed his progress bear testament to his positive attitude and hardy approach. Neil Dewsnip signed Gordon to Everton when he was 11, after he was released by Liverpool, the club he supported as a child. ‘He was fairly reserved when I first knew him, but that personality has developed so much… We knew he had this self-belief but that has constantly evolved and we must not forget how hard he has worked to get here.’
It’s an attitude Gordon, who later moved to Newcastle United, has not only to applied to his professional calling, but to his life. That ethos was reflected in his determination to learn Spanish even before his subsequent transfer to Barcelona this May. He shocked journalists there by announcing in flawless Spanish – and even in fragments of Catalan – how excited and proud he was to be at the club. As he said shortly before the move was finalised: ‘I have a [Spanish] physio in Newcastle and we spoke every day and I told him one day I’ll play for Barça, so I want to learn Spanish. So that’s how I speak some.’
Anthony Gordon’s industriousness and focus not only serves as an inspiration to today’s anxious generation and to those who find life’s necessary travails sometimes too much. It also reminds us that there are so many youngsters out there with burning ambition and a will to succeed. Not all of them are shirkers or snowflakes.
Whatever transpires in the match against Norway tonight, these are all lessons we should take from this man’s story.
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