Matthew Briggs: ‘I had been the league’s youngest player – I couldn’t ask why I wasn’t involved’

Before Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri it was Fulham’s Harvey Elliott, and before Elliott it was Fulham’s Matthew Briggs. For 12 years Briggs held the mantle of youngest Premier League debutant, feeling both the joy of the accomplishment but also its considerable weight.

“I’m proud to have had that title and I wouldn’t take it back for the world,” says the 31-year-old. “But there is a part of me that wishes I’d just progressed slowly up the ranks.”

Briggs was aged 16 years and 65 days when he replaced Moritz Volz in Fulham’s 3-1 defeat at Middlesbrough in the final game of the 2006-07 season. On the Saturday he had trained with Lawrie Sanchez’s first-team squad for the first time. On the Sunday he made Premier League history. On the Monday he sat his GCSEs. Success and the trappings of Premier League life beckoned or so the young left-back thought.

“It was so surreal,” reflects Briggs, who now plays semi-professionally for Gosport Borough in the Southern League Premier Division South while working as a fitness and life coach. “As I ran on the pitch the Middlesbrough fans started singing: ‘Who are ye? Who are ye?’ I loved every minute of it.

“The fans were trying to get into my head but I didn’t let it faze me. I did well when I came on, out of position as well in centre midfield, and when I looked up after the game I saw my Mum. She had travelled up and was sat in one of the boxes above the tunnel with the directors. As I was walking back in I looked up and saw her in tears. That’s when I realised what I had achieved.

“I had my GCSEs the next day and when I walked into school it was like I was someone else. Everything went silent for a moment, then everyone was running up to me saying: ‘Oh my God, I saw you on Match of the Day