Aged 13: Christopher Atherton makes his debut for Glenavon FC

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“Interest from the Premier League”

Glenavon FC’s 6-0 win over third-tier Dollingstown FC in the first round of the Northern Ireland Cup does not, on the face of it, promise to be a historic event. In the 75th minute, however, Gary Hamilton, coach of the first division club, used the reassuring 5-0 lead for just that. Substituting Christopher Atherton, he made the youngest professional in the history of professional football in Great Britain.

The attacking player was 13 years and 329 days old when he made his debut, younger than all other professionals on the island before. The youngster showed that the substitution was not just a gimmick for an entry in the history books, just a minute later when he set up the goal for Matthew Snoddy to make it 6-0.

Atherton has not only been considered a great talent since his debut in the cup, which has attracted the attention of larger clubs from England, like Hamilton afterwards times revealed: “There is a lot of interest from Premier League and Championship clubs, they come and see him. I won’t name names, that would betray people’s trust, but you know what I mean. The problem is that the boy can’t come over until he’s 14, the rules are different in England.”

The coach described the profile of the homegrown player as follows: “He can play in several positions, sometimes he plays as a tenth behind the strikers, sometimes he plays up front, he plays on the outside. He’s one of those guys who can probably play anywhere in attacking positions. He’s two-footed, has a lot of self-confidence and can score goals. Obviously he’s only 13 so he’ll still be able to improve physically but he’s working on it.” Congratulations for the debut followed not only from his coach but also from the official Twitter account of the Northern Ireland Football League.

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