Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney admits he almost walked away from the game at 14.
Rooney, who started his career at Everton before moving to Manchester United in 2004, revealed he was persuaded to stay at Goodison by the club's former boss Colin Harvey.
He said: "Colin Harvey was a massive help because when I was about 14 I stopped enjoying playing football. I had enjoyed it all my life until then, but I was being told to do different things that I didn't want to do and it was down to Colin that I carried on.
"He sat me down and made me fall back in love with it. From that moment on, that's when I said to myself, 'This is what I want to be doing'.
"At that time I was doing boxing as well as football but that's when I stopped going to boxing and focused solely on football. Thankfully it was the right decision.
"At that age you just want to go and play football. And then around about that age, you start getting told what different things to do on the pitch, you're learning the tactics of the game. I felt at that moment that I just wanted to go and enjoy it. I felt that it was too much and I remember going home and telling my dad that I didn't want to go any more.
"My dad was upset with me over it. And then I went in to see Colin Harvey and he was great for me. From then, I stopped going to boxing and concentrated 100 per cent on football. From then, that's when the progression was rapid for me.
"He just said he had seen players throughout his career and that he hadn't seen any player with the talent that I had, so I would be making a mistake. He said he would always be there to help me and support me.
"And he said, 'If you keep working hard, then you will be in the first team quicker than you think'. Once he said that, I thought, 'He used to be Everton manager, so he knows the game'. Thank goodness I listened to him."
