The Big Interview: Lee Sharpe and his roots

Sharpe rose to prominence as an exciting winger for Manchester United and England and claimed all of the richest prizes in the land,

He'd been snapped up by the Red Devils from Torquay United, with the £200,000 transfer fee a British record for a YTS player at the time.

That's why some assume his roots are in Devon, not the town of Halesowen where the 45-year-old was actually raised. Most of his family are still there.

Dad Leo played non-league himself, supported by mum Gail. Sister Nicola is a teacher at Huntingtree Primary School in Halesowen.

Younger brother John was a promising young player himself with Manchester City, but drifted out of the game and is now a commercial electrician. Football is in their blood.

Eldest child Lee led the way and turned out for the likes of Stourbridge Falcons, Stourport Wednesday and the Halesowen and Dudley district side as a youngster.

A boyhood Villa fan, he dreamed of one day starring for the claret and blues but, instead, signed for arch-rivals Birmingham City aged 15, having attended Hagley Roman Catholic High School.

Sharpe never got the chance to play for his boyhood heroes, in the end, but that was simply because he was never given the opportunity.

He said: "I'm a football fan, when it comes down to it, and the Villa side that won the European Cup were my heroes. I stood in the Holte End, as a kid, cheering on Tony Morley and Gary Shaw.

"I was actually coming back from an England game once and Doug Ellis (then-Villa owner) was sat on the same plane. He told me 'maybe we'll get you down here one day.'

"He never came in from me, if he did I was never made aware of it. I would have been interested, too, whenever it came along."

As a precursor to what would become a topsy-turvy career, he was let go by Blues after a season. Not for the last time, there were fears his potential would go unfulfilled.

The only opportunity in the pipeline with a professional club was 175 miles away at Torquay, then of the bottom-tier in English football.

Under dad's orders, in the end, Sharpe took the plunge expecting a fight on his hands to work his way up the ladder in the muck and nettles of the Fourth Division.

He was quickly knocking of the door of the first-team for 1987-88, where he made 14 appearances scoring three goals. He was still fresh out of school, at 16-years-old.

Word quickly got around of a 'next big thing' playing for the Seagulls and, all of a sudden, United came calling with an acceptable offer. He'd been at Plainmoor for less than a year.

The long road to the top had shortened just like that, with Sharpe recalling: "I was born to an obsessed dad who used to swing me between his legs with a football in the living room.

"By the time I could walk and he realised I was left footed, he had my mum rolling the ball to my right foot to make sure I could kick with both.

"Of all the managers I've ever played under and all of the clubs I've been at, my dad is my only-ever individual coach.

"When I was 15, I went to Birmingham and I thought 'this is where the dream begins.' I was signing autographs in the back of people's textbooks at school.

"Then, at 16, they let me go. That's how I ended up at Torquay, I got myself a trial there and played three games in three days.

"They offered a YTS and I moved hundreds of miles away from home. My mum didn't want me to go, but my dad told me I had to follow my dream.

"I stayed in digs with a lovely Scottish family who had a couple of kids, who I used to babysit. They took me under their wing and treated me as their own. It was a real family atmosphere.

"I had a really good manager there, too, in Cyril Knowles. He wrapped me in cotton wool, like starting me in home games and using me as a substitute away from home.

"I remember playing one game on a Friday night, Hereford at home. I'd not particularly had a great game and I'd been beaten up a bit by their defenders.

"I was laying in bed, about 1.30am, and all of a sudden I hear these footsteps in the corridor. I hear the jingle jangle of keys and in comes the landlady's mate.

"They told me Cyril and the club secretary were downstairs and wanted to see me straightaway. They had just been driven around in a Jaguar by Sir Alex Ferguson.

"He had told them he wasn't leaving until he had shook hands in the morning on a deal to take me to United. I couldn't go until I was 17, so I stopped there until the end of the season.

"I first went up to Manchester on the train and, at the end of the platform, Sir Alex was there himself to meet me. That meant a lot to me."

Living in unfamiliar surroundings already didn't bother Sharpe, at that point, and the switch Old Trafford was the big break he'd been waiting for.

As would prove to his cost later on, he embraced city life and the prospect of starring for one of the biggest clubs in the land. Team-mate and captain Bryan Robson would become his hero.

It wasn't the so-decorated United we know of today, or the Sir Alex who became the most-successful British manager ever. That was all in the pipeline.

Sharpe made his debut in September 1988, as a substitute at home to West Ham, with his first experience of top-flight bullying coming against Tottenham Hotspur soon after in that season.