BALL BOY TO

Burnley striker Jay Rodriguez has come a long way since the day he cheered on Ian Wright at Turf Moor

The 10-year-old Rodriguez was a ball boy at Turf Moor when Ian Wright made his Burnley debut 20 years ago this week.

Wright scored four goals in his three months at Burnley in his last hurrah as a player to help Stan Ternent’s side win promotion to Division One.

That ball boy became a man and Rodriguez and Burnley are set to secure a fifth successive season in the top flight for the first time since the Clarets’ glory years of the 1960s.

Burnley have been transformed since Jay’s dad, Kiko, sat him on a barrier to watch the Clarets play in the third tier in the 1990s.

“I remember my dad taking me to my first Burnley game,” he said. “It was in the stand with the blue bars and I was sat on top of that to watch the game. My first taste of Turf Moor.

“I then became a ball boy and I remember when Ian Wright came and we won promotion.”

Kiko, whose parents moved to Burnley from Spain just before he was born, was a decent semi-pro striker and played for Burnley’s reserves.

“My dad was at Burnley for a time,” he said. “I think he got asked to train with the reserves and all he ever says is that he scored an overhead kick against Manchester United. There’s no footage though!

“That’s what got me into football, watching him play.”

Burnley signed the youngster up, although he thought his career was about to end when youth coach Terry Pashley called him and his parents in to discuss his future at 16.

He feared he was going to be released and had lined up a plumbing course instead.

“One of my two best mates did a plumbing course, and one did a joinery course,” he said.

“I saw a plumbing course at Burnley College and I thought I would so something in construction. At that age, 16, I never thought football could be a living for me. But Pash took a chance on me. It was such a massive surprise, I swore! My mum was so shocked.”

Now the 30-year-old striker, who has scored seven times in all competitions this season, is proper Burnley and enjoys the town’s favourite tipple of Bene’n’hot, made from the French liqueur Benedictine.

He was thrilled when he broke into the first team and was part of Owen

Coyle’s side which won promotion to the Premier League in 2009, ending the

Clarets’ 33-year exile from the top flight.

Back then the players had to change at Turf Moor before driving to train at Gawthorpe Hall. They did not have the stateof-the-art facilities the current squad enjoys.

“The journey the club has been on is incredible,” he said.

“This is a well-established Premier League side and the facilities are top notch.

“We used to get changed at Turf Moor, drive to the training ground, then get back in the car and drive back to Turf Moor to get showered!’’

Rodriguez did not play a top-flight game 11 seasons ago, mainly because of injury, but fulfilled a boyhood dream when he made his Premier League debut in August after returning to Burnley from West Brom.

“Getting promoted in 2009 was the best feeling,” he said. “But I then got an injury and missed out the following season.

“I watched it from the sidelines. It was a pleasure to see, but also a real frustration.

“So now to be able to represent your hometown club in the Premier League, there’s no better feeling.

“I’m enjoying it and I just want more.”