Kid who won two Euro Cups as a teenager

NAME the British player who won two European Cup winners’ medals before his 19th birthday?

The answer to a quiz question that would leave even the brightest football brain scratching his head is... Gary Mills.

Now 59 and manager of Southern League side Corby Town, Mills says he owes those medals to ‘the gaffer’.

That was Brian Clough and in 1980, he handed teenager Mills a starting spot in the European Cup Final against Hamburg that was won by John Robertson’s goal.

“By the time I played in the final I had been involved in the European Cup for a couple of years,” said Mills, who collected a winners’ medal 12 months earlier having made an appearance during the competition’s early stages.

“I started playing for the reserves when I was 14-years-old and the gaffer didn’t treat me differently to players who were 24.

“If I didn’t do my job, I got a rollicking.

“By the time I played against Hamburg I was experienced.

“I had been part of what had been going on for a while.

“It was all about man management with the gaffer. That was the genius of him.

“I wasn’t treated like a young player, I was treated like a part of the squad and that’s how I felt.

“You still get nerves before big games, but I wasn’t overwhelmed by playing in the European Cup final.

“On my 17th birthday I played at Spurs in front of 50,000 fans.

“I was up against Ossie Ardiles, who I’d watched in the World Cup.

“He went off and I stayed on!

“You see teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid win the European Cup and I did it twice in my first two years as a professional footballer.

“It was an incredible start and the older I get the more it means.”

Mills had two spells at the City Ground, making 132 appearances, and regards a match he played for East Midlands rivals Leicester as one of the most important of his career.

Either the Foxes or West Brom would be relegated to the third tier for the first time in their history on the last day of the 1990-91 season.

It was Leicester who escaped the trap door, beating Oxford 1-0 while the Baggies drew at Bristol Rovers.

And Mills admitted: “That was definitely one of the biggest games I played in.

“I’m an emotional man and I was in tears after that. That was massive for the club and who knows what would have happened if Leicester had gone down?”

Under Brian Little, Leicester reached the Premier League in 1994.

“That was a good side,” Mills added.

“When we went behind in games we always believed we could come back and win.”