World News – AU Scouts knew Dean Henderson would turn pro by age 11

"We had an extraordinary boy" - youth scouts knew the Man United star would make it as a professional by age 11

CAMEROON MAGAZINE - GM02/12/20202 Mins read67 Views

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The road from academy football to first-team pro can often be arduous, and the percentage of those who make it into the elite is still minuscule when you look at churn year after year of young people in pro clubs.

Occasionally, however, a young player is so good that there is no doubt he will get to the top.

That certainly seems to be the case with Dean Henderson, who could now cement his place in goal at Man United if David De Gea fails to properly recover from an injury during the weekend game in Southampton.

« Dean representing Carlisle, that was the dream we all had, myself, first-team goalkeeping coach Tony Caig and youth leader Eric Kinder, » recalled Ben Benson, Carlisle’s former leader the goalkeeping department of the Academy Daily Mail.

« So much so that we put him on a six-year contract. If under 11, we signed him until he was 16! It shows that we knew we had an extraordinary boy on our hands.

“He enjoyed the goalkeeper’s details, the intricacies of the position. He discovered the goalkeeper’s mistake.

« We’re meeting now and he wants to go through this, look at this or ask, » What do you think? « This thirst for knowledge has never really left him.

« He was under 13, played a year and we played Burnley. They were notoriously a fantastic team and the result was 12-0, something like that.

« Dean is frustrated, angry, a little upset, only 12 years old and I said, » Dean what’s up, I thought you did a fantastic job. He said, “I thought I should have done better with the sixth goal. I should have walked with my longest hand, my top hand.

« He said, » Can we stay out now and do something? « We stayed behind for half an hour and 40 minutes. All he wanted to do was recreate that goal, recreate this moment, and get it right in his own head, and that’s one thing that really stands out, among other things.

« How motivated he was and how quickly he could fail and repair quickly. To correct and want to correct was massive for him. ”