Arsenal and Ethan Nwaneri don’t know that his life has just changed forever with EPL debut at 15

Forster was 15 years and 185 days old – and a goalkeeper to boot – as he sought to avoid the media throng outside the main Archibald Leitch stand at the opposite side of the ground after a draw with Leicester City. Instead, he joined a crowd of 45,000 people heading home on a Saturday teatime in August 1964 as he made his way to Seaburn Station.

On arrival at the station, he was recognised and given a free train ticket back to his home in Newcastle. The taxi driver who picked him up at Newcastle Central Station recognised him as well, so he got another free ride back to his home in Walker, in the east of the city. Anonymity had just left young Forster’s life.

The media were already waiting outside the home of the youngest player to have played in England’s top flight. It was a record that Forster held until Sunday, when Mikel Arteta sent on Ethan Nwaneri in stoppage time during Arsenal’s 3-0 win away to Brentford. Nwaneri’s league debut meant that, at 15 years and 181 days, he had become the youngest footballer to play in England’s top league.

The warning then from Forster is quite stark.

“This lad doesn’t know his life has changed forever,” he says. “I just hope Arsenal give him the full support. He has been thrust into the limelight from nowhere at that age and he will never be the same young lad again.

“This is very important. My life changed, for ever. This lad doesn’t know, and Arsenal don’t know, what changes are going to happen. I’m the only one who has gone through it. Whatever he does socially or football-wise he will be received differently.

“I just hope Arsenal and his family and friends are aware that things are going to change. Do you understand? The level of pressure and scrutiny on him now is going to be huge. It will be unbelievable.”

Forster’s story remains remarkable, which he is fully aware of. He was an established England schoolboy player at the age of 15 and until now has never revealed how he came to make his debut at 15 at Roker Park. If that was not daunting enough, the following week he was facing a Chelsea team at Stamford Bridge packed with household names such as Terry Venables and Ron “Chopper” Harris.

“I played in every game for England schoolboys and at that time was rated as one of the best ‘keepers around,” he says. “Burnley and Sunderland were two of the best clubs in the country for youth teams and bringing on young players.

“All of us England schoolboys were getting offered fortunes to sign for clubs so I said to the Sunderland manager, Alan Brown, ‘If you want me, I will go for my career first, but I want a sweetener if Jimmy Montgomery [the Sunderland first-choice goalkeeper] is injured. I want to be next in line to make my debut, no matter what happens.’

“The manager and the chief scout went to the board and they said, ‘Yes, we will guarantee you the first-team place if Monty is ever injured.’ It was a good proposition so I took it. It was on my insistence, not my mam and dad’s. They weren’t happy that we didn’t get the money. They would have preferred me to have a signed for a different club.”

The moment that would change Forster’s life came on Sunderland’s training pitches in Cleadon, when Montgomery broke his wrist in training on the Monday before the 1964-65 season was about to start.

By Wednesday, news was out that a 15-year-old was about to make his debut in the first division.

“When the news broke I mean, well, the training pitches were full of cameramen and television cameras and my life changed for ever,” Forster says.

“That clause in my contract? You’re the only one I’ve told, ever. I kept it quiet, rather than boast about it. No one knew back then. No one could understand why this kid, who is a schoolboy, was getting preference over the other two back-up goalkeepers we had.”

He describes the next phase of his life as a “media circus”. On the morning of August 22, 1964, Forster had a pre-match meal of steak with his teammates and then walked from the Roker Hotel to Roker Park. In the dressing room he was a boy among men.

“I was sat next to Charlie Hurley and he was a monster,” Forster says. “I was big for my age, but next to Charlie one of his thighs was bigger than my two. He was brilliant. He was a big help.

“I was 5ft 9 and a halfin. I wasn’t big for a goalkeeper in completion but for my age I was. Agility was my strength.”

Then he walked down the tunnel to face Leicester. “It was unbelievable,” he says. “It was as if the whole world was watching me. They ignored the other players. The cameraman and photographers were around my goal. It was as if nobody else was on the pitch. The game went off. It went well. I made a couple of early saves that settled me down a bit.”

His debut would finish 3-3. He played at West Bromwich Albion four days later and was still in goal when Sunderland faced Chelsea, who had finished fifth in the first division the previous season and, in the campaign before that, had beaten Sunderland to promotion on goal average.

“That was brilliant, absolutely brilliant,” Forster says of the 3-1 defeat by the London club that was caught on Match of The Day. “Tommy Docherty was manager, George Graham, Terry Venables, Chopper Harris and Peter Bonetti all played. It was a top international side and it was a full house. The Chelsea players all came across and said ‘well done’.”

Forster agrees that there is a contradiction between what he says now – recalling the joy and privilege he felt during that incredible period of his life – and warning Nwaneri of the potential pitfalls that await.

“What I am trying to explain tactfully is that his life has changed,” he says. “It’s not going to change, his life has already changed. Only I know what that means and how that change will take place.

“Hopefully he has support because he is going to need it. He is never going to be looked upon in the same way again, but he doesn’t know that yet.

“He only played a couple of minutes, but he goes from there to, let’s say, playing in the academy next week. That is very traumatic. The pressure is enormous on him. Nobody will be looking at the other players. He will be judged by his record and not by his ability.

“People will go to academy games to watch him and they will assume he’s going to be a world-beater and that won’t be the case.”

Sunderland soon realised that the 15-year-old goalkeeper was out of his depth and rescued him by signing an experienced replacement.

“I think common sense prevailed,” Forster says. “It was clear that the occasions were probably too much for a kid of my age. The difficulty is you’ve gone from being thrust into another world and then you’re going back to where you should be, which is playing in the youth team.

“It was very difficult to accept because I didn’t know what was going on. They were all watching you and that is extra pressure. You felt your performance had to be that bit better.

“I tried too hard, all the time. It had a detrimental effect on me for a while. I was in the middle of a media circus when I was 15. It was exactly that. I was in every magazine in the world.

“I wouldn’t say it became too much but it built up to an extent that I realised it shouldn’t be happening.”

Forster would stay as understudy to Montgomery for eight years at Sunderland, returning to the first team three years after his initial bow. He would play in Vancouver with Bobby Robson for a short spell before moves to Charlton Athletic and then Brighton & Hove Albion, signed by his former Sunderland teammate, Brian Clough.

At 27, he retired and moved into leisure management. “I realised at some point I was going to have to find a job,” he says. “I had a successful career in the leisure industry.”

So, what would the 73-year-old say if he were to sit down with Nwaneri?

“Be yourself and not think about all the hype, don’t believe in it,” Forster says. “Just concentrate on being a young pro, keep your head down and keep your feet on the ground. Enjoy what you’ve got, it won’t last forever.”

– The Times

Originally published as Arsenal and Ethan Nwaneri don’t know that his life has just changed forever with EPL debut at 15