Ashley Chambers is a Leicester City record holder who battled against Real Madrid’s German superstar Toni Kroos in an Under-17 World Cup quarter-final and celebrated a rare Wembley double.
On Saturday, he is determined to show he is “still here”.
The former England youth international started his senior career by becoming the Foxes’ youngest ever player at the age of 15 in 2005.
He is now a part-time footballer with seventh-tier Leicestershire side Coalville Town, who are preparing to face League One high-flyers Charlton Athletic in the FA Cup first round.
“I’m 32, it’s not going to propel me up the leagues,” he told BBC Sport. “But I can use it as a stage to go ‘I’m still here, still alive and can still mix it with decent players’.
“I know now these opportunities may not come around often. I want to soak it in, enjoy the game and give the best version of myself for people to say ‘he’s not too bad’.
“I can daydream about scoring and winning, and what it would mean to the club, but when it comes down to it on the day, it’s a game to really focus on to use as a stage. And that’s what I’ve said to all the lads, ‘go out and be yourself’.”
Chambers is in his first season with Southern Central Premier League side Coalville – the 11th club he has played for during his 17-year senior career to date.
Last season he helped Buxton – another seventh-tier side at the time – reach the FA Cup second round for the first time in their history. He then went on to pick up his first league title as they won promotion to National League North.
Chambers has already scored 15 goals in 19 appearances for the Ravens this season, with one coming in their upset cup win against National League leaders Notts County in the fourth qualifying round.
“This season is probably going to end up as going down as one of my best ones,” the striker said.
“This year feels different. I chose to move to Coalville because I wanted to be back home in the Leicestershire area and I don’t know if I’ve ever made a better decision in my football career, because it has fully brought the love back for it for me.”
‘Bit of what could have been’
In a career that started with a shock Leicester City call-up for a League Cup tie against Blackpool while he was on his lunch break at school, Chambers is not short of career highlights.
But he does not hide that there have been “dark times” along the way as well.
He recalls the Wembley double with York City – winning the FA Trophy and then the Conference Premier play-off final to seal promotion to League Two in the space of eight days in 2012 – as a clear highlight.
Coming up against Kroos as a teenager in an Under-17 World Cup quarter-final – one which ended with Chambers being sent off in a heavy defeat against Germany in 2007 – was also “incredible”.
A major knee injury just months after he made his historic debut for the Foxes and a fractured ankle at the age of 17, when he thought he would get “going a little bit”, were two “blips” which he feels altered the trajectory of his fledgling career.
“You always have that little bit of what could have been,” he admits.
“Looking back at those moments you think ‘maybe that was the biggest turning point?’ If these injuries hadn’t happened, maybe it would be a completely different story and I’m not having this conversation as a Coalville Town player.”
But it is as a non-league player – who works on building sites, having done stints as a roofer, joiner and loft installer in recent years – that Chambers prepares for the latest test in his eclectic career.
“I’ve turned into the journeyman footballer that I never wanted to be, but that’s how it turned out,” he reflects.
“I’ve always explained lower leagues, non-league football as like working man’s football because you are earing a good wage but it’s a wage that a joiner, a bricky, a carpenter, carpet fitter or whatever could earn.
“They are obviously not doing the job you are, but what you are paid at the lower levels is not going to change your life. And it is difficult when you have a family from a young age and you’re making decisions about moving or trying to set up base.
“It has been tough and there have been dark days, I’m not going to deny that. But would I change it? I wouldn’t because so many young boys grow up wanting to play professional football.
“To play one game is brilliant, and to play however many I have now has been amazing.”
‘Getting my mum mad’
Mention of his senior debut – the one that put him in Leicester’s history books at the age of 15 years and 203 days – makes him chuckle with nostalgia as he points out that it “always raises a smile”.
That surprise selection, a late cameo that yielded a solitary touch, was confirmation that he was one of the nation’s brightest talents at the time.
Kieran Trippier and Kyle Walker, who went on to start for England in last year’s European Championship final defeat by Italy, were two players he called international team-mates as a teenager.
“I look back with pride,” Chambers added.
“As a seven or eight-year-old kid running around the house kicking a soft ball around, getting my mum mad, to being someone who has played X amount of games and scored a few goals and played for his country – albeit at youth-team level – is still not too bad.”
