Rio Ferdinand's attention had been caught by the imposing figure bedecked in blue, running the game from the centre of defence.

It was 2011 and the Nike Cup, the Under 16 tournament, was being staged at Manchester United's Carrington training ground. Chelsea had reached the final and were playing the Right To Dream Academy, the physically imposing representatives from Africa.

Chelsea were under pressure but Ferdinand's eye kept being drawn to how the young man he had spotted stayed composed and made his decisions with clarity. At the end, after Chelsea had won 1-0, he sought out Joe Edwards and Andy Myers, the team's coaches. He had one question.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek's display at Wembley has boosted his chances of going to the World Cup

Loftus-Cheek was awarded Man of the Match for his efforts and could now play against Brazil

‘The lad at the back,’ said Ferdinand. ‘Who is that?’

‘That’s Ruben Loftus-Cheek.’

Nobody will need to ask who Loftus-Cheek is after his headline-grabbing England debut against Germany last Friday, which brimmed with power and grace, but the theme of sticking out from the crowd has been a constant all the way through this most promising career.

There has always been something different about him, from the age of seven when he started playing for Springfield FC on Sunday mornings.

Scouts would flock to watch him regularly but it was Alf Blandford who ended up ensuring he joined Chelsea’s Development School in Catford.

‘He is like a Rolls Royce,’ purrs his father, Trevor, who was sat in the stands at Wembley on Friday, bursting with pride.

‘He used to win all of the player of the year awards. But once Chelsea clapped eyes on him they knew what he was. They knew he was special.’

The midfielder (top row, second from right) enjoyed a successful youth career with Chelsea

You may be inclined to initially dismiss the ‘Rolls-Royce’ reference, given it was introduced by Loftus-Cheek’s father but it was a term that cropped up continually in conversations with those who have been responsible for nurturing him.

The reason it is so easily used is because he is a big and powerful but does everything so smoothly. He’s as tall as Yaya Toure, Manchester City’s force of nature, but there is a grace about the way he moves – something, perhaps, that comes from endlessly watching videos of Thierry Henry as a child.

Those ingredients ensured Chelsea would not let him slip from their grasp and Michael Beale, who is now Liverpool’s Head of Coaching for The Foundation Phase, remembers his first encounters with him at the Cobham Training Base that his family still live close to.

Loftus-Cheek has been a talked-up for years but lost his way under Jose Mourinho at Chelsea

‘Ruben was always athletic, right from the start,’ said Beale, who coached Loftus-Cheek for the Under-9s and Under-10s then again for the Under-13s and Under-14s. ‘He was in a group with Tammy Abraham and I’m delighted for them.

‘Ruben is a quiet lad – he’s really good kid, very grounded and comes from a lovely family – but he is one of those boys who comes to life when you put a ball at his feet. Everyone knew that he had a real chance of going to the top.

‘In the summer, he would come to us for six weeks over the holidays and I was responsible for bringing him from Kent. Adam Gemili (The GB Olympic sprinter) used to be in the car with us – he was a couple of years older – and a few other boys. It’s amazing how things have worked out.

‘People within the Academy system have been aware for a long time about him and I’m just happy to see him breakthrough and the loan to Crystal Palace has really helped. It’s good because Gareth Southgate can change what is happening in club football when he makes selections such as this.’

Loftus-Cheek has been described by his father as a 'Rolls-Royce' because of his quality

Southgate knows this a player who can become an emblem of the England team he is trying to build; he took him with the Under-21 to Euro 2015, for example, to educate him about the pressure of tournaments and prepare him for the future.

‘The national coaches sit down after every round of matches with (Technical Director) Dan Ashworth and Gareth,’ explains Under-18 head coach Neil Dewsnip, whose first memory of Loftus-Cheek is watching him run amok against Wales at Cheltenham in a schoolboy international seven years ago.

‘He will have been aware of exactly where Ruben has been all the way through and he won’t have been shocked by what he did against Germany because he is fully aware of the development path for all these young players.’

If Southgate is excited about his future, he also knows the other parts of Loftus-Cheek’s back story; the frustrations and worries that have dogged him at varying times. This journey, it must be stressed, hasn’t always been easy.

There was a point, for instance, when he was 14 and he missed almost an entire season with glandular fever; he recovered from that but then suffered several injury enforced absences that were down to growing pains, leaving him and his club frustrated.

Then there was money. Loftus-Cheek was given a lucrative contract when he was 16, which led critics to say he represented the too much, too soon generation; such criticisms enraged those who knew him, who insist he would be the same whether he was playing for £20 or £20,000.

He has played for England at different age groups including the Under-21s (top, second left)

Above all, there has been the disappointment that he has not made played as much for Chelsea’s first team as he should have done; he made 11 appearances last season but most came from the bench and the switch on loan to Crystal Palace was crucial.

‘Jose Mourinho held him back,’ Trevor, his father, argues. ‘He should have been playing. Everyone behind the scenes was asking: ‘why isn’t he playing?’ If Ruben was playing for Mauricio Pochettino, he’d have 70, 80, 90 first team appearances by now.’

After the way he performed against Germany, though, it would appear that his time is finally coming. As he showed that day when grabbing Ferdinand’s attention in Manchester, he has too much talent to stay in the shadows.

Loftus-Cheek jokes about in training with fellow England team-mate Ashley Young