Midfielder signed for Everton at 15 for a king’s ransom but the money went to his head, his game went to pot and only now he is back on the straight and narrow

George Green can recall the day he left Bradford City in 2011 as if it was yesterday. “I was at school and remember getting a phone call from my agent. He said: ‘You won’t be going back into school tomorrow.’ The next day I signed for Everton.”

A little more than four years later the attacking midfielder who was compared to a young Paul Gascoigne when he moved to Goodison Park at 15 for a fee that was supposed to rise to £2m is earning £75 a week playing for the Northern League side Ossett Albion. Green, who started last week’s 2-0 win over Garforth United in the quarter-finals of the West Riding County Cup, once shared a pitch with Ross Barkley and Dele Alli for England’s youth teams but finds himself back in his native Yorkshire having voluntarily terminated his three-year contract at Oldham Athletic in November.

“I was moved too fast,” the 19-year-old reflects. “Bradford were struggling at the time for money and I was just an easy way to make some cash. I would much rather have waited another year to finish school and then gone, but I wasn’t really given a choice.”

Sadly English football is full of stories like his. The academy system that now scouts children as young as five is always on the lookout for the next big thing and Green and his agent were richly rewarded when he made his move to Everton. By the age of 16, having been paid a £45,000 signing-on fee to ward off interest from Tottenham, he was earning more than £4,000 a month and being tipped to break into the first team by the end of the season.

“It went straight to my head. I just went out and blew the signing-on fee,” he remembers. “You’re earning thousands of pounds a week and you get more leeway than other players. You don’t want to take liberties but I took more than one.”

Green was playing games for Everton’s Under-21s within a few months of his arrival such was his potential. But as the money rolled in he admits he found it hard to maintain his focus.

“I wasn’t going into training because I thought I was better than everyone else,” he says. “Being an idiot. Being an absolute idiot, if I’m honest. I wasn’t turning up sometimes because I wasn’t enjoying it and I thought I could do what I wanted. When I did go in, I was training absolute shite. When you’re playing at that standard you can’t do that. It’s a better game than that.”

The arrival of Roberto Martínez in 2013 to replace David Moyes appeared to offer Green hope but a hernia injury meant he fell down the pecking order and spiralled into depression. There were even message-board rumours that he had checked himself into rehab.

“It was nothing to do with drink or drugs,” he says. “I suffered really badly when things started going wrong on the pitch. I wanted to take my life a few times. There were a couple of bad stints but now I’ve come out of them stronger,” he says. “I was expected to make the first team at 16 and then win an England call-up. But if you have one bad game then you start having people question you and asking why you aren’t progressing. It did all get too much because I was only doing the best that I could.”

After a spell at Tranmere on loan last season, when he scored his first league goal but was in the team relegated from League Two, Green was released by Everton in June having never made a senior appearance.

“They did everything they could but unfortunately I threw it back in their faces,” he says. “Everton knew I had ability but they wanted to see that I could be more professional and unfortunately I didn’t show that.

“I was sent to see a psychologist to get my head right but he didn’t really help. He gave me some tablets which I didn’t take because I didn’t want to be known as someone who needed that to feel right. It all hit me at once. I pushed away all my friends and family because you don’t realise they are there to help.”

Encouraged by Joe Royle, the former manager who is a youth development coach at Everton, his agent arranged a move to Oldham within a few days. Yet, after making only three substitute appearances, Green’s old problems returned and he decided to give up a contract worth £1,000 a week to return home.

“The people behind the club didn’t understand how I worked as a player so it got to a stage where I thought it’s not about the money,” he says. “If a manager shouts at me, I won’t respond. I’ll tell them to fuck off and walk off. Whereas if they put their arm around me I react differently. It has had a negative impact on my life in some ways but it was important to me to find happiness again. I just wanted to go back to my old roots and start enjoying the game again.”

Salvation came in the form of Ossett’s manager, Richard Tracey, who was Green’s PE teacher and first met him when he was only 11. “He’s always been super-talented,” says Tracey. “I remember describing him at school as the closest I’d seen to a Paul Gascoigne. But potential can be a dangerous thing. It’s a noose around their necks. We had two Manchester City scouts coming to watch our under-six open day earlier this year so it’s getting even younger these days. All the teams are fighting for the same lads.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest George Green earns £75 a week at Ossett Albion. Photograph: Courtesy of Ossett Albion

Without a job and with his girlfriend expecting a baby, the opportunity to rebuild his career was just what Green needed. Under the terms of his departure from Oldham he was forbidden from joining any club higher than the Conference until 1 January – the day before his 20th birthday. So despite having one of his cars repossessed a few weeks ago, he is learning to make do.

“There was no plan set up for me,” he says. “I got myself in that much debt that now I can’t afford anything. I’m on £75 a week at Ossett so that’s been a real wake-up call. That’s got to last me all week for everything so there’s no way I can run a car.”

Tracey, who also works as a scout for Sheffield United, believes Green’s story could have turned out differently if the player had been given better guidance. “It was a case of too much, too soon,” Tracey says. “If you’re earning five or six times the average wage in the UK at the age of 16 then things can easily go wrong. Youngsters who have got a fair bit of money can get into bad habits and it seems to happen far too often with young players. There’s a lot of expectations on these kids when they sign for a big club and that can make it difficult to settle in. It’s up to the clubs to make sure they are looked after, especially when they have left school at such a young age.”

Playing in the eighth tier of English football has certainly been a great leveller. “It’s hard,” says Green. “You can’t be a good player because the pitches are shite and you’re not playing with the same standard of players you are used to. I’m going off reputation at the moment so I’m a target.”

Salford City have expressed an interest in signing him in January once his registration is released by Oldham. Green scoffs at the suggestion that it could be his last chance to make a career for himself and make sure he doesn’t follow the same path as so many talented schoolboys.

“Not a chance,” he says. “I’ve never seen it as finished. I’ve always wanted to go back into the game but I just needed a bit of time for myself. Now I’ve had that time I want to go back into it. I’m still only 19 so there is plenty of time for me to get back there.”

Lost boys

George Green was one of several English schoolboys to be sold in multimillion-pound deals between 2007 and 2011:

Michael Woods and Tom Taiwo, Leeds to Chelsea £5m, aged 16, 2007: Chelsea were accused of tapping them up by the Leeds chairman, Ken Bates, after both rejected professional contracts; the complaint was withdrawn when Chelsea paid £5m in compensation. Woods is now at Hartlepool after a spell at Harrogate Town and Taiwo plays for Falkirk.

Dean Parrett, QPR to Tottenham, £2m, aged 15, 2007: Parrett moved across London to join Tottenham and was tipped to make a breakthrough after starring for England at youth level. Joined Stevenage on a free transfer in 2013 after several loan spells.

John Bostock, Crystal Palace to Tottenham, £2m, aged 16, 2008: Chased by Barcelona after making his Palace debut at 15. Bostock’s father had his season ticket at Selhurst Park revoked by the chairman, Simon Jordan, after he joined Spurs. Now playing for OH Leuven in Belgium’s Jupiler League.

John Cofie, Burnley to Manchester United, £1m, aged 14, 2009: Cofie was wanted by Chelsea and Liverpool but moved to United. He was released four years later and has had spells at Barnsley, Norwegian side Molde and Crawley. Wrexham offered him non-contract terms after a trial last month.

And one who made it …

Raheem Sterling, QPR to Liverpool, £5m, aged 15, 2010: Became the third-youngest player to play for Liverpool in 2012 and capped by England for the first time at the age of 17. Moved to Manchester City in the summer for a British record transfer fee of £49m.