A former youth footballer has told a jury he was sexually abused by two of his coaches when he was a teenager desperate to make it in the professional game.

The complainant, who was on the books of Peterborough United as a schoolboy and a trainee, told the court he was manipulated, brainwashed and indecently assaulted by one of the club’s coaches, Bob Higgins.

He also claimed he was ordered to drop his shorts by another coach, Kit Carson, as they discussed a crucial assessment in his office. The complainant, who can only be identified as U, said Carson looked at him naked and told him he was developing well.

Higgins, now 66, is on trial at Bournemouth crown court, where he denies 51 counts of indecent assault against 24 boys between the early 1970s and mid-1990s.

The prosecution alleges Higgins was a predatory paedophile who used his power as one of the sport’s kingmakers to carry out a 25-year campaign of sexual abuse against boys as young as 11. Higgins, who also worked at Southampton between the mid-1970s and late 1980s and ran his own football academy, is credited with helping develop a string of star players.

U told the court that being a professional footballer was all he ever dreamed of as a boy and he was taken on by Peterborough after asking the club for a trial when he was 13 or 14 in the early 1990s.

He first met Higgins when he and other members of the under-16 squad went for an assessment week near Southampton. U recalled how in a clearing in the woods nicknamed The Den, Higgins would try to toughen up the boys by insulting them and forcing them to fight each other.

The complainant said Higgins stepped on his testicles as he did sit-ups. “I thought it was about proving I had what it took,” U said.

Back at Peterborough, U was called into the office of the club’s youth development officer, Carson. Wearing only a pair of shorts and flip-flops, Carson told him he had performed better than anybody at the assessment, he said.

Carson told him he was surprised he had done so well on the strength tests as he was slight. Carson asked him to drop his shorts so he could see how he was developing. U obeyed and stood for up to a minute naked in front of Carson. “He said something like: ‘Fucking hell, you are developing really well,’” U told the court. Carson is not on trial.

U was later told he would be taken on as part of the club’s youth training scheme and Higgins was becoming youth team manager. Higgins and U began to spend a lot of time together in Peterborough and at Higgins’ family home in Southampton.

U told the jury: “He said he was going to look after me as he would look after his own son and I was one of the five special people in his life. He meant the world to me.”

In March 1996, U wrote a letter to Higgins telling him: “I love you Bob … I hope we stay close forever and you carry on being my dad, brother and best friend.”

By now the relationship had become physical, U said. Asked by Berenice Mulvanny, prosecuting, how the “love” was shown, U said Higgins would have him sit on his knee, cuddle him and put his hand under his clothes. “There was a lot of touching each other. That was the love,” he said.

U added: “I felt safe because I had been manipulated and brainwashed.” He claimed the physical contact escalated over time until Higgins began to touch his penis with his foot. “I didn’t like it but I was stuck. I was in it too deep,” he said.

When Higgins left Peterborough, U quit too and went to live with Higgins and his wife, Shirley. After a while, Higgins told him he had to go home and U went on to have a career in football away from him.

U told the court that years later, he rang Higgins and planned to tell him he was disgusted at how he had abused his power. U said that when he heard his former coach’s voice, he was too scared and simply asked Higgins how he was.

The trial continues.