‘I was giving it big licks at school after making my debut – then Alan Pardew said I couldn’t take a girl out’ Jonjo Shelvey on the cost of being a teenage prodigy

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The midfielder was just 16 years and 59 days old when he came on against Barnsley in the Championship after it had been mathematically confirmed that the Addicks could no longer make it into the play-offs.

That gave Shelvey some bragging rights on the playground a couple of days later…but as he found out, his burgeoning career also came at a cost.

Shelvey told FourFourTwo: “I played in the game on the Saturday, we lost 3-0 away to Barnsley, then on the Monday I was walking around school very proud, giving it big licks!

“Charlton had [nothing left to play for], so they were giving youth a chance, and it was a great experience.

“I wasn’t overawed – I felt comfortable as I’d been training with the first-team squad since I was 14.

“Funnily enough, after the game I had to ask the manager Alan Pardew if I could still take a girl to that summer’s school prom, as I needed to let her know.

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“He just laughed and said: ‘Tell this girl you can’t make it sadly, as you’ll be on Charlton’s pre-season tour!’.”

Shelvey also went on to become Charlton’s youngest-ever goalscorer the following January, still aged just 16.

By the end of the 2009/10 season he was playing regularly enough in League One, and performing well enough, to land himself on Liverpool’s radar.

Shelvey said: “The Charlton manager Phil Parkinson and the chief executive Richard Murray pulled me in for a chat, and they asked who my favourite player was. I told them it was Steven Gerrard. ‘Well, you’ll be playing with him next season’, they replied!

“Charlton had accepted a bid from Liverpool and it was all done. I signed in the May, when Charlton were in the play-offs, but I couldn’t play for them in case I got injured.

“I had to patiently wait for the start of the new season to play again, but me and my family were incredibly proud.”

Steven Chicken Steven Chicken has been working as a football writer since 2009, taking in stints with Football365 and the Huddersfield Examiner. Steven still covers Huddersfield Town home and away for his own publication, WeAreTerriers.com. Steven is a two-time nominee for Regional Journalist of the Year at the prestigious British Sports Journalism Awards, making the shortlist in 2020 and 2023.

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