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Born in 1993, Noble-Lazarus came on as a substitute in a 3–0 win over Ipswich Town against Barnsley in the Championship (England’s second division) on 30 September 2008, aged 15 years and 45 days, becoming the youngest ever player who made his debut in English professional football. The winger shaved 113 days off the 1929 record set by Albert Gelhard.

Since then, a lot has happened to him, he has moved away from elite sports, and according to his confession, he has not kicked a ball for more than two years. He came on from the bench seven years ago, the Rochdale coach at the time gave him a few minutes in a third-tier English league game, and then completely disappeared from the public eye.

Noble-Lazarus was unable to fulfill the brilliant career that was predicted for him, constant injuries, tests and surgeries kept him away from success. After a point, he was only able to train if the doctors pumped him with painkillers before the training sessions.

Now the 30-year-old mustered up the courage to reminisce about the ordeal that pushed him to the bottom. According to him, he went into this process because he hopes that by exposing himself, young football players chasing their dreams will learn from his mistakes.

There was no receipt from the photographers at the school either

“I cannot look back on my career with pride. I should have achieved more, and this realization still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I wish I could be more positive, but I don’t want to say that my life turned out this way because of someone else’s fault. A lot depends on luck, but I should have done more to make my fate better,” Noble-Lazarus admitted to the Daily Mail journalist.

When he started playing football, the experts immediately saw his talent and rated him as more than his contemporaries, among whom John Stones or just Danny Rose had a bigger career.

The former is still unbreakable in one of the best teams in the world, managed by Josep Guardiola from Manchester City, and the latter played for many top English champions in Tottenham Hotspur.

Noble-Lazarus scattered goals among the youth, for example, a few days before his big debut, he scored a hat-trick against the Sheffield United U18 team, which, among other things, Kyle Walker was also a pillar member – he later became a regular member of the English national team and the Champions League winner Manchester City.

It was a bit scary when I joined the adults, but I was really lost in my own little world. Then, when I went back to school, I suddenly became the focus of the media, for the sake of journalists and photographers, they even dragged me out of the classroom and into the corridor in the middle of classes. This made me terribly nervous, as I was withdrawn at school, I didn’t like being the center of attention. I was really interested in one thing, sports, I just wanted to play football, I didn’t want anything else

Noble-Lazarus recalled the days of 2008.

He recalled that the senior team played with two strikers, and he was behind them on the field in the 10 position. “Being agile and fast, I was not afraid of anyone,” he described his youthful self.

The problems started when he tore his ankle ligaments on a bad shot on his 18th birthday. The really big problem, however, was that he did not rest the injury, which worsened due to gym training.

“It’s easy to be smart in hindsight. It’s true that forcing the gym sessions was silly, but I just did what I was told. I lost my explosiveness, which was my greatest strength, and I never got it back. It practically sealed my career,” Noble-Lazarus admitted.

He also said he regretted his fierce resistance when they tried to make him a left-back, even though he was told by several people that he performed well in that position against Hull City in April 2013.

Just when it seemed that he could start going up, another stroke of fate came

Because of his stubbornness, he was constantly loaned out to other teams, but he failed to take root anywhere. Then came a training session at Blackpool, which he was looking forward to. About ten minutes into the warm-up, he tore his Achilles tendon in a bad move.

I knew right away that something was wrong. From that point I fell from one nightmare to another while I was awake. I got help, but I collapsed in my head. I was mentally floored, I didn’t want to meet anyone, I wasn’t even willing to talk to my family members. At the time, I was living in a “mama hotel”, and my mother tried to beat the hell out of me, but I saw through her, I didn’t care what she said to me. I regretted this very much, even now I feel ashamed when I remember how rudely I behaved with him, but mentally it was difficult for me to overcome that injury. I don’t hide it, I was tormented by suicidal thoughts. One night I went to a pub, but I didn’t even feel like getting drunk, so I went home early and freaked out in front of my mom and brother

admitted the former winger.

Noble-Lazarus remembers screaming hysterically that she didn’t want to be there as she burst into tears.

After somehow pulling himself together, he again tried to build his career. According to him, he could not even list all the clubs where he was answered on the phone.

“I went to every trial game but I knew I was in terrible shape physically and mentally I wasn’t the player I was. At the age of fifteen, the world was at my feet, and then reality hit me hard. I lost before I even really kicked the ball,” he summed up his career.

After his umpteenth injury, words were thrown at his head, which made his medicine roll off immediately

Collecting the last drop of strength, he got rid of his excess weight, and in the summer of 2020, Halifax, in the English fifth division, offered him a one-year contract.

Then the crash struck again, he suffered a knee injury at the end of the preseason. He wasn’t even fielded in November, when some members of management accused him of faking the injury.

“I’m a calm person, but at that meeting I was very pumped up, I lost my head quite a bit,” he admitted.

To prove his point, Noble-Lazarus underwent more tests at his own expense, then, running out of ideas, asked a physical therapist to tightly bandage his leg from thigh to ankle and went to exercise.

“The strap was so tight that I could barely bend my leg during the warm-up. I took painkillers before and after training to keep from collapsing. My knee was getting more swollen every day. The coach didn’t even put me on the bench on match days, and at the end of the season they immediately said goodbye to me. I wasn’t surprised by that, but I wanted to let the management know that I wasn’t faking the injury,” explained Noble-Lazarus.

Now her daughter is the most important thing to her

At the age of 27, he finally decided to turn his back on the game he had once staked his life on. He admitted that he had taken a naive approach to life several times and regrets that he never had a plan B. He also talked about the fact that he still has “struggles” today, but he has already accepted that they have shaped and continue to shape his personality.

According to his confession, he does not want to coach, but he could imagine himself in some kind of mentoring role, and he is investigating the possibility of the methods by which he could protect the mental health of young footballers.

“Looking back, a well-prepared mentor would have helped me enormously,” concluded Noble-Lazarus.

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