Update: I’m a plumber but all anyone wants to hear about is how I played for Manchester United and England News

After being close to achieving his boyhood dream of playing for Man United’s first-team, former academy graduate Lee Lawrence was forced to open a new chapter in his life because of injuries.

Lee Lawrence was just nine-years-old when he arrived at The Cliff with aspirations of making the grade at Manchester United.

Despite being born and raised in nearby Wigan, Lawrence was an avid United supporter, idolising Eric Cantona. After being spotted by United scouts while playing for his local team, he was invited for a two-week trial to show them what he could do.

He made such a telling impression that United offered him a deal within two days. Unsurprisingly, Lawrence did not need a second invitation to accept their offer.

“I snapped their hand off,” Lawrence told the Manchester Evening News. “As you can imagine at nine-years-old, it is one of the best things that can happen to you. For your boyhood club to want you to play for them, it’s a big thing.”

Growing up in an era in which United’s squad was littered with household names and star-studded talent, Lawrence had been treated to seeing some of the club’s all-time greats as a fan.

The opportunity to rub shoulders with players like David Beckham and Roy Keane was not lost on hime, who continued: “You’re a big football fan at nine, 10 and 11-years-old and the likes of people who you were watching were Eric Cantona, David Beckham, who was just breaking through, and Roy Keane.

“One minute I was watching them on the TV, wanting to be like them, and then the next minute I was seeing them at The Cliff or Littleton Road taking training sessions. At the beginning, when you’re not used to it, it was like, ‘Wow, my heroes are in front of me’. It was a bit of an eye-opener.”

One of Lawrence’s fondest memories growing up at United was when renowned youth team coach Eric Harrison turned up to take a training session with Cantona in tow. It was a moment Lawrence, now 40, will never forget.

“Obviously at that time Cantona was lighting up the Premier League and he was taking a training session with you, it was stuff you dream of at that age,” he recalled. “That is one of the earliest memories I have. It was an experience, put it that way!”

As he continued to climb the rungs of the United youth ladder, Lawrence, who plied his trade as a left-back, attracted interest from Everton at the age of 14. The financial offer, though Lawrence never knew the exact details of it, was attractive, but he was adamant he wanted to pursue his dream of making the grade at Old Trafford.

“To be honest, I didn’t know anything. They were not allowed to discuss money with myself; they did with my dad behind closed doors,” he said. “I still don’t know what that fee was because my dad’s never told me. But he just said it was one of the worst mistakes of my life not going there.

“I don’t see it like that; I am United through and through, I always have been, and that was the club I wanted to make it at. Even if I had known the package, and it was a decent package, I still probably would have stayed at United.”

Lawrence’s decision to stay put and continue working towards his dream of becoming a seasoned pro at Old Trafford took a significant step in the right direction in the 2002/03 season. For the first time since 1995, United won the FA Youth Cup.

Beating Middlesbrough 3-1 over two legs, with the second finishing in a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford, the club secured their ninth Youth Cup crown. Lawrence, who had sampled the Youth Cup the previous season when tasked with stepping up an age group, started both legs of the final, helping United’s youngsters etch their names into the club’s history books.

“I think with the FA Youth Cup, unless you have experienced it with Manchester United, you don’t realise how much the club takes it on as a serious competition,” Lawrence admitted. “They take it as seriously as any first-team cup.

“The build-up around it, the weeks before and the training that goes into it, they really are fixated on winning it. United have got a good reputation with the FA Youth Cup and a record of doing well in it, so they want to progress that and do well.

“You go there as a young kid at 16, 17-years-old playing in it, and you have got the gaffer (Sir Alex Ferguson) watching you, the first-team are turning up watching you, and that was probably the first time that a lot of us had played in front of a decent crowd, too, which gave you that glimpse into what could happen.

“You think, ‘My God, this could be it, this could be my job’. It just gives you a nice little taste of what first-team football could be like.”

Despite his primary responsibility being first-team matters, Ferguson was richly invested in the Under-18s’ FA Youth Cup campaign. Lawrence was once given a pep talk by the legendary Scot on how to keep a lid on an opponent.

He said: “The gaffer is involved right from the start, not just the semi-final or the final; the gaffer is literally involved in the training and what goes into it. Choccy [Brian McClair] was our manager at the time when we won it and he would obviously put us through our paces on the training ground, but the gaffer used to come down to the training ground.

“I always remember when we played Charlton in the FA Youth Cup and they had a really good right-winger at the time, and the gaffer pulled me and told me how to play against him and what I needed to do.

“You were in the changing room and the gaffer was there with us and it felt like you were actually playing for United’s first-team. It was a very surreal experience.”

The FA Youth Cup-winning team Lawrence was part of featured several figures that ended up enjoying successful careers in both the Premier League and the EFL.

“I think the standout player for us at that time was Kieran Richardson; he was our main threat in attack,” said Lawrence. “I used to live with a guy called Mads Timm. He was my digs partner and he was from Denmark.

“He was another guy who had all the ability in the world to go on and do well. But we knew from the team that we had, the squad that we had, and from the lads that were playing, that we were good enough to win it.

“We all knew there would have to be something wrong for most of the team not to make it in the game because of the names that were there. On top of that, we had Gerard Pique training with us. Giuseppe Rossi was over at that time too.”

Following the FA Youth Cup triumph in April 2003, Lawrence was rewarded with a first-team squad number for United’s Champions League campaign the following season. It was at that juncture that he felt everything was falling into place.

Asked if at that was the moment he felt he was on his way to becoming a first-team regular, he said: “Yes. After we’d won the FA Youth Cup, I think three of us got a first-team squad number for the Champions League and I was one of them. That was a nice little boost to my confidence. I got my name on the back of the programmes and I have obviously still got my shirts.”

Despite being awarded the No.38 shirt, Lawrence was not given a first-team opportunity during the 2003/04 campaign. However, he had done enough to convince United he was ready for a loan move elsewhere to get some fist-team minutes under his belt.

He joined Shrewsbury Town, who were non-league at the time, in March 2004 and he helped them clinch promotion via the play-off final, beating Aldershot on penalties.

“I got asked to go out on loan to Shrewsbury Town, which was a fantastic experience,” Lawrence recalled, explaining how that deal came to fruition. “The way they put it to me was that they felt I was ready to get into the first-team [at United], I was training with them, doing well, and they wanted to get me some first-team experience.

“At the time, Shrewsbury were looking for a left-back and were trying to get out of the Conference. Their left-back had just got injured and they came in and asked for me.

“That was a confidence-booster for me to get some first-team football and get that under my belt with a view to coming back [to Old Trafford] and integrating a little bit more and getting a couple of games with the first-team.”

After helping Shrewsbury secure promotion to the Football League, Lawrence, who was sat on the bench alongside Joe Hart for the play-off final, got the offer of a permanent stay in Shropshire. But just as he had told Everton a few years earlier, he informed them his heart was still set on making a name for himself back in M16.

However, little did Lawrence know he was about to enter the beginning of the end of his football career. He returned to United having suffered a knee injury. United stuck by him and gave him another year to try and get himself fit.

Ultimately, Lawrence’s body refused to play ball and he had to call time on his career in 2005 at the age of 21, after being informed he may have ended up in a wheelchair had he carried on playing.

“Up until about 18, 19, I kept having little tears and little bits and bobs with my medial ligaments in both knees, which wasn’t good,” he recalled. “I was in a boot for eight or nine weeks, back out of the boot, back to training, and did a few months’ worth of getting back into it, and then the knee would go again.

“Eventually, I think it might have been when I came back from Shrewsbury, possibly in pre-season training, I went over on my knee and snapped my left medial ligament. It was a bad break. That was when the club could have got rid of me there and then, but they did give me another year to rehabilitate and try and get back into it.

“But unfortunately, it just wasn’t to be. The knee wouldn’t hold up. I went to a couple of clubs after I got released by United; I went over to lower-league clubs, Bristol City being one of them, and they were going to offer me a contract. But the knee gave up when I went there.

“The last club I ended up at was Accrington. I thought I’d go down the leagues and try and get myself back fit and try again. I think I did 16 weeks at Accrington, and I was injured for most of it. I think we played Morecambe, and I was supposed to sign my contract after that game. Unfortunately, I snapped my knee again in that game, and I called it a day after that.”

Hanging up his boots at the age of 21, following 12 years in the United system, hit Lawrence’s parents hard.

He said: “When I played against Morecambe and I snapped my knee again, one of the physios at Accrington said that if I kept doing it, I may end up not being able to walk. Worst-case scenario, I could have potentially ended up in a wheelchair. That hit home then, and I thought it was not worth trying to keep pursuing and ending up like that. That was when I made my decision.

“I spoke to my mum and dad and told them I had made a decision and that I was going to do something else. They were heartbroken because they had been taking me to football from four-years-old to 21.

“They watched me grow up at United for 12 years. I think it hit them more than it hit me at the time, and I didn’t realise just how big a decision it was. It is only when you look back now that you realise it was a hell of a decision to make.

“A lot of people ask me if I regret it, and I always say to them what a childhood it was, what an upbringing I had to be brought up at a club like United.”

After retiring in 2005, Lawrence had the opportunity to move to America and take on a coaching role. But on the day he went to sort his visa, he decided that he wanted to stay in England.

“I did [turn it down], stupidly, to be honest with you,” he admitted. “I looked at all the ways I could carry on with football when I first retired because that was all I had known and knew nothing else.

“There was an opportunity that came up to go coaching in America, so I went on a trial there. I think the trial was in Derby, if I remember rightly. They offered me a role not just doing the coaching, but because of my background with football, they’d be looking for me to run the academy.

“I took the job offer and then the day I decided to go and get the visa, I didn’t end up going.”

That decision paved the way for Lawrence, around a year after hanging up his boots, to open a new chapter in his life as a plumber, securing an apprenticeship alongside his father.

“I took an apprenticeship as a plumber with my dad,” he said. “One of the main reasons was that I had bought my mum and dad’s house when I was about 17 when I got my first signing-on fee. I didn’t want to move house.

“They were moving so I bought their house. I had a mortgage, I had commitments from being a young lad at 17. The options were: put the house up for sale and go and start again in America, or carry on with the life I had built here, so I decided to carry on with the life I had built here.”

Following the completion of his plumbing apprenticeship, the former United youngster went self-employed and then set up his own business as a gas engineer. After almost two decades in that field, he now is a technical advice engineer for Longridge-based company Eco Providers.

He added: “Realistically, yes, I am still a plumber. I did a plumbing apprenticeship. As soon as I came out of my apprenticeship, I went self-employed first, and then I got my own business being a gas engineer.

“I did that for about 18, 19 years, and it takes its toll on the body, believe me! I would never tell an ex-footballer to go and get a job as a plumber because it does not do well for the body.

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“As luck has it, I got a job offer last year to work for a big company in Preston. It is kind of a technical advice engineer, but it is also like an in-house supervisor for about 25 lads.

“I have kind of taken a management role for a company that is for gas central heating and renewable air-source energy.”

Lawrence’s interview for his position at Eco Providers was the first of his life. To his surprise, those quizzing him at his interview wanted to know about more than just his plumbing career.

Recalling how the interview unfolded, Lawrence, laughing midway through, said: “I had never had to do a job interview because I went straight from football and into plumbing, and working for myself and having my own business, so I had never had to do a job interview until last year.

“I had to dig out my CV, tell them what I had done, and the first one was that I had been a footballer for Man United for 11 years. As I had the interview, they said, ‘Right, tell us about your career’. I started telling them about my plumbing career and they said they weren’t interested in that.

“They said, ‘You’ve played for Man United and England’. I was like, ‘Yes, but what’s that got to do with plumbing?'”