The defender thought his dream was over when he was released by MK Dons as an 18-year-old, but it gave him the chance to experience student life instead before he came full circle and ended up back at his boyhood club

George Williams can recall the scene with perfect clarity. It is 2011, the MK Dons defender is 18 years old and he is wandering, floating, from the club’s stadium, struggling to suppress the lump in his throat. It is an out-of-body experience. He makes it to the car, phones his dad and wells up. The dream is over.

Except, as Williams now appreciates, it was only just beginning. Footballers are united in the devastation and loss that follows a release at that age; being denied a first professional contract after all of the effort and sacrifice. But what Williams did next sets him apart.

Next Generation 2017: 60 of the best young talents in world football Read more

He took up the offer of an undergraduate place at Loughborough University, initially on a three-year sports science course, which would become four years when he added in a management option. And he did so as a means of bouncing back into the professional game.

Williams would drive the plan to fruition through the strength of his character. Having won a silver medal with the Great Britain football team at the 2013 World University Games in Russia and played for Loughborough’s university team and then Worcester City in the Conference North, he got his break at Barnsley in League One, as he finished off the final part of his degree.

He graduated with a 2:2 and, following a loan at Barrow in the National League and a glorious return to Barnsley, he can now reflect on being back where it started and once threatened to end – at his hometown club, MK Dons.

“If I could go back and get a professional contract at 18, I wouldn’t do it,” Williams says. “University was incredible. They were the best four years of my life. It just broadens your mind and prepares you for anything. It really helped me to grow as a person and, by extension, as a footballer.

“I think a lot of young lads are in a bubble at under-18 level at professional clubs. They are in full-time and they think they have got everything ready. When it’s taken away, you are in the real world.”

Williams had joined MK Dons as a 14-year-old and he thought that his two-year scholarship from 16 had gone well enough, at the time. He certainly envisaged turning professional at the club he had always supported. The confidence, however, was misplaced.

“It was at the stadium where we were told if we were getting pros [professional contracts] or not and it was quite brutal,” Williams says. “All the lads sat in a room together and we were called in one by one. Karl Robinson, the manager at the time, was there, along with his assistant, John Gorman, and the under-18s manager, Mike Dove. Long story short – they basically said they didn’t think I was good enough. It was a big surprise. I was very upset, very emotional when I left the building. I remember leaving straight away and calling my dad in the car. There were a few tears. I was absolutely gutted.”

Williams talks of how he had fallen out of love with football. He would get his mojo back at Loughborough, where he played for the first XI on Wednesday afternoons and their men’s team on Saturdays in the Midlands Alliance, which was four rungs down from the National League.

Williams had been encouraged to apply to university by his tutors at Milton Keynes College, which he attended as a compulsory part of his scholarship at MK Dons. He needed to do extra work in his own time – essentially, 50% more – because the college programme got the players to BTec level and university applicants had to have a diploma. Williams did the extra work. He was one of only two who did.

If I could go back and get a professional contract at 18, I wouldn’t. University was the best four years of my life George Williams

So, what was it like to be a student? “It was brilliant,” Williams replies. Cue laughter. “Careful, George,” the MK Dons press officer interjects, with a smile. More laughter. Best student days story that can be printed in a family newspaper? “Ahhh, I don’t know about that,” Williams responds. “I think they all involved alcohol. There was a lot of fun.”

Williams was not the stereotypical student. He wanted a degree for something to fall back on but the priority remained his football. So he worked out every day in the gym and he trained or played virtually every day, too. Loughborough is synonymous with sporting excellence and Williams even went through a pre-season with the football team before he joined as a fresher.

“I honestly didn’t know what I would do with my degree because I was adamant that I was going to get back into professional football,” Williams says. “I always had that drive and I was grafting every day at uni. It’s just about being mentally strong.

“The good thing about the lads I was friends with was that, because it was Loughborough, they all did sports. We had a tennis player, a hockey player, a hurdler and we all helped each other out. We worked hard together but we enjoyed it together as well.”

Williams was selected for the England team at the British University Games and it was the prelude to his involvement at the World University Games or the Summer Universiade, as it is officially known. “It was like the Olympics but for students and it was huge,” Williams says. “It was in Kazan and we had the opening ceremony at Rubin Kazan’s stadium. It was full – 50-odd thousand people watching. We beat Russia in the semi-finals in front of a big crowd before we lost to France in the final.”

By then, Williams had agreed to join Worcester City for 2013-14 and the following season he would enjoy a turning point when his club went on a high-profile FA Cup run. They beat Coventry 2-1 away from home in the first round and lost only on penalties after a replay to Scunthorpe in round two. The shootout was a 32-kick epic – a record for the competition.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Williams hands off Kwesi Appiah of AFC Wimbledon during the recent League One game between the rival clubs, which MK Dons won 2-0. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

“That Cup run emphasised that the talent is there in the non-leagues,” Williams says. “It’s just about players getting the chance. The experience you get in the Conference North prepares you a lot better for men’s football. It’s a great platform and it’s much more competitive than the under-23s league that they’ve got at the minute.

“I’m not a massive fan of that league [the under-23s]. I spent a few games in it when I was at Barnsley and there’s no real competitive edge. There’s not enough men in it. When you’re playing in a non-league game against men that need to keep their places in the team to put food on the table, it really opens your eyes to how much you have to graft.”

Williams got a call from Barnsley the day after the Scunthorpe replay and he signed an 18-month contract with them on 22 December 2014. He made his debut as a substitute at Preston on Boxing Day and his first start, weirdly, would come at MK Dons a few weeks later. A kid called Dele Alli scored the opener in a 2-0 MK Dons win.

Despite what football clubs say, the support for rejected boys is not there | David Conn Read more

Williams looked to be set fair. But then Danny Wilson was sacked as the manager and his replacement, Lee Johnson, did not fancy Williams. He would be frozen out and given a 93-day loan to Barrow of the National League at the beginning of the following season. And yet, when he returned to Barnsley, Johnson turned to him as injuries bit. “He actually apologised to me and said: ‘I got you wrong,’” Williams says.

Williams took his chance and, even though Johnson would depart for Bristol City in February 2016, he had jammed open the door. He kept his place in the team under Paul Heckingbottom and he was part of an eye-catching success story. Barnsley had not reached a cup final since 1912 but they beat Oxford United to win the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy and they bolted from the relegation zone at Christmas to a sixth-placed finish, before beating Millwall in the play-off final to reach the Championship.

What came next sparked nightmarish memories: Williams was released. “It was another real low and I thought: ‘What have I done to deserve that?’” he says. “It was similar to when I got released by MK Dons – the bottom line was that they just didn’t want me.”

At least Barnsley allowed him to leave on a free, rather than seeking to extract a fee at tribunal for a player who was then aged 23. And, with his options open, Williams took a call from Bobby Winkelman, the head of recruitment at MK Dons. Remarkably, Robinson – the manager who had broken Williams’s heart – wanted him back.

It has been a triumphant homecoming. Williams was MK Dons’ player of the season last time out and, with the club captain, Dean Lewington, no longer a regular under Robbie Neilson, who took over as manager last December, Williams has worn the armband in some matches. As an aside, only one other player from Williams’s MK Dons scholarship intake remains in football – George Baldock, now at Sheffield United.

“Looking back, I agree with Karl,” Williams says. “I wasn’t ready for professional football at 18, although I felt I deserved a contract for the work I put in. But I’ve got a degree, I’ve made friends for life from university and now I’m back at my hometown club, where I used to have a season ticket. It couldn’t have worked out better.”