“We obviously did something right”: the club that gave Kobbie Mainoo his start | England

“H“He said his first club was Cheadle & Gatley,” says Steve Vare, beaming with pride at being Kobbie Mainoo’s first coach at the Stockport-based grassroots club. “I’m not saying we made him into the player he is today in any particular way, but we gave him the start he needed in his footballing life. We obviously did something right.”

Mainoo is with England at Euro 2024 at the end of a breakthrough season in which he made a memorable cameo appearance on his international debut against Brazil and was one of the bright spots in a disappointing season for Manchester United, culminating in his goal in the FA Cup final against Manchester City. But before his rapid rise to domestic and international stardom, he began his career at the football academy that Vare ran for seven years.

The two-hour Sunday morning sessions for four to six-year-olds were part of Vare’s nearly 40-year association with football and his volunteer work at the club. He played in every age group and became involved again when his three sons started playing for the club. His boys are now 22, 20 and 16. Mainoo joined at the age of five and spent nine months there.

Vare recounts the first time he saw Mainoo and was blown away by his talent. “If you compare one five-year-old to another, Kobbie stood out by miles. You never know, but it’s clear that Kobbie is the player he is today because of his effort, his time, his commitment and of course his ability. As a five-year-old, he was an exceptional and outstanding player.”

Vare says he spoke to Mainoo’s father Felix about how to challenge Kobbie and that was the biggest difficulty in his job. “I always put the best players on the opposing team and Kobbie found a way to win the game single-handedly!”

In addition to the undoubted quality that Mainoo displayed, his personality also set him on the path to excellence. “He had this belief and self-belief,” says Vare. “But that was confidence to me, not arrogance. He is very relaxed, down-to-earth and grounded – maybe that’s because of his Ghanaian roots. It’s certainly because of his upbringing and the support network that surrounds him now.”

The Mainoo family are playing a leading role in supporting Kobbie. Felix has been involved in his development and the whole family is in Germany to cheer him on. The midfielder recently said he is proud of his heritage but it is his dream to play for England.

His family is low-key. Kobbie visits Ghana regularly, but little else is known about him personally. He is an avid listener of Alchemist, but low-key. What is his favourite Sunday meal: fufu and light soup or banku and okra stew? You get the feeling he has made it this far by blocking out the noise; his family wouldn’t have it any other way.

Before joining Manchester United at the age of seven, he had a brief stint at another local club, Failsworth Dynamos, and it became clear that he wanted to get as close to professional academy football as possible.

“I kept saying, ‘Look, we have this five-year-old who is good enough to play in an under-7 or under-8 team,'” Vare says of his struggle to keep coaching Mainoo. “But the manager (at the older age groups) said, ‘Well, what can I do? We probably have three or four more players than we need on our teams. We can’t take another one.'”

Other former members of the club include George Evans of Wrexham and Hallam Hope, who has just been released by Oldham. The attention Cheadle & Gatley has received on social media since the Euros began has been described as “Mainoo mania”. The club’s treasurer Richard Hubbard, who has been with Cheadle & Gatley for more than a decade, hopes it has a lasting impact on other volunteers and the production of English grassroots football as a whole. The club also runs girls’ teams and recently brought its first female player, Manchester United’s Holly Dearing, into the professional game.

Could the club produce another Mainoo? “Every year we probably produce 100 new players for the football school, it’s that difficult,” says Hubbard. “If we could produce the next one, for me it would be a young woman. When I was growing up, that opportunity didn’t exist. It would be fantastic if it was a young lady playing for the Lionesses or something like that.”

The club has six adult teams for 18- to 30-year-olds in addition to the junior teams that Vare and Mainoo played for. “The kids have gone to university or moved around the country and come back to the area. The first thing they do is play for us again. It leaves an indelible mark on your temperament.”

With England’s Euro campaign stalling, perhaps it’s time to put your faith in Mainoo. One thing is for sure: supporters like Vare, Hubbard and countless others would consider him a wise choice.