How Oxlade-Chamberlain joined the elite

LONDONAs a schoolboy footballer, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain thought a lack of inches would wreck his dream of becoming a famous player like his dad. But after a £15m move to Arsenal at the age of 17 and now being tipped for a place at Euro 2012, this is surelyHe has always been quick, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, just not as quick as he thought he was.As a child, the Arsenal teenager would be taken by his father, the former England winger Mark Chamberlain, to a park near Portsmouth’s Port Solent marina for football training.Their games would always end with a sprint; a seven-year-old boy up against his father, a man who just happened to have been one of the quickest professional footballers of his generation.Curiously, the boy would always win, until the day his father decided that his son was ready to know his true place in the world.‘Until I was nine or 10, I genuinely thought I was quicker than him,’ says Oxlade-Chamberlain, recounting the tale of lost innocence. ‘Then one day when we raced he battered me and I didn’t know what had happened. I started telling him he was cheating. Obviously, he thought at that age I could take losing.’Mark Chamberlain tells the anecdote somewhat differently.‘It got to the point when he was 11 or so — I can’t remember exactly how old — and he was talking to some people who had seen me play. They told him, “Your Dad’s quick”, and he said: “Quick! He’s not quick. I always beat him!” That’s when I told him, “But I let you win”.’His son laughs at the absurdity of it now but his father’s influence appears to have instilled in him both confidence and politeness.Not since Wayne Rooney has there been an attacking English footballer who has generated the amount of excitement Oxlade-Chamberlain has at the age of 18. His roles have been cameos so far but many Arsenal fans would have the player they call ‘The Ox’ down as a starter against Manchester City.Such was the impact of his performance against Manchester United that Arsenal captain Robin van Persie was seen to mouth ‘No!’ when Arsene Wenger decided to substitute his young team-mate.Oxlade-Chamberlain is undoubtedly quick, as AC Milan will testify, but his skill, vision and tactical awareness suggest a maturity beyond his years and the potential to dominate his generation, which is why Arsenal were persuaded to take the bidding to £15million to sign him from Southampton last August.He appears unaffected by all the fuss. Until recently, he drove a modest Audi and, while he has moved away from the family home at Port Solent for the first time, he shares accommodation near Arsenal’s Hertfordshire training ground with a schoolfriend who is at university in London.His father visits him regularly and Arsenal’s own network ensures he is well supported. Perhaps he remains grounded because he was not always so highly rated.Anyone who saw Rooney from the age of seven upwards was convinced that he was a world-class player in the making, and at 16 he was scoring match-winning goals against the then England goalkeeper, David Seaman.Oxlade-Chamberlain? He was scouring sixth-form colleges to see which career he might pursue in case Southampton did not offer him a schoolboy contract.‘I can remember when I finished school, coming to end of year 11,’ he recalls. ‘I was trying to get a scholar (contract at Southampton) and I remember going round colleges looking at what course I would do. A year later I was talking about moving to Arsenal. It all happened so quickly.’He was brought up not to expect football to be automatically his career path. Educated at St John’s College, a private school in Southsea, he achieved good grades in 10 GCSEs and might have chosen to pursue A-levels and a place at university if football had not worked out for him.‘I did the football and his mum [Wendie, a physiotherapist] did the education,’ says his father. ‘Football won out.’But it was not without a battle, as Alex takes up the story: ‘I didn’t grow until after a lot of my friends. I was always technically good enough, or maybe a bit better, but physicality is a massive thing in making the transition to the men’s game.‘When I was in the Under 14s at Southampton, because of my size they hadn’t known whether or not to keep me on. Then I went through a stage when I was 15 and Southampton had to decide whether or not I was going to get a scholarship, and they told me that at that moment I wasn’t. I had two months to prove them wrong, otherwise I’d be released.Despite the change in his physique, that season he was restricted to a place on the bench for the Under 18s.‘I had one game in the FA Youth Cup, which was a rare start for me,’ he says. ‘But the assistant manager (Dean Wilkins) was there and although we lost 3-1 at QPR, I had a really good game and I was with the first team from then onwards.’Alan Pardew gave Oxlade-Chamberlain Chamberlain his first team debut at the age of 16 years and 199 days, coming off the bench in a 5–0 victory over Huddersfield and becoming the second youngest Southampton debutant after Theo Walcott, now his Arsenal teammate.By 17 Oxlade-Chamberlain was a Southampton first-team regular, scoring 10 goals last season. At Arsenal, where scouts immediately saw through the size issue, they clamoured to sign him and he has scored four goals in his 14 starts since joining last summer.At 5ft 11in and around 11st, he is not exactly huge but he is muscular enough to force his way past bigger defenders, although he prefers to beat opponents through technique, calling on skills honed by those sessions in the park with his father.‘If I used to take a player on and get away from him, he would catch me up,’ he explains. ‘But my dad used to say, “Imagine what it’ll be like when you’re 17 or 18 and you’re big and quick. They won’t be able to catch you then”. If you are a smaller player, you have to use your brain a lot more.’It was the same in rugby. He played scrum-half at school, as well as cricket for south-east Hampshire.‘I was always nippy in rugby, getting away from people in the first five yards but then they’d catch me up with their big legs,’ he says. ‘I didn’t enjoy rugby too much when everyone started getting bigger.’At least the issue of his size saved him for football, and the scout from London Irish who inquired after him was told not to bother even asking.Oxlade-Chamberlain’s versatility and ability to adapt suggests maturity and makes the case for a promotion to the full England squad.Fabio Capello might well have used him in the friendly against Holland in February had he not resigned. Caretaker manager Stuart Pearce chose not to, arguing that the Under 21 side was a better environment for this stage of his career.But the clamour to take Oxlade-Chamberlain to Euro 2012 will be unrelenting. Thr player himself remains realistic about his chances.‘It’s hard enough for me to get in the team at Arsenal, never mind thinking about the Euros,’ he says. ‘Of course, you wouldn’t say, “No”. It’s every lad’s dream. All I can focus on is what I’m involved in at the moment. But you wouldn’t be a footballer if you didn’t aspire to playing for your country. One day I do want to play for England but it’s for someone else to decide when.’If he does so, and he surely will within the year, he and his father will join an exclusive club, along with the likes of George Eastham junior and senior, Brian and Nigel Clough and Frank Lampard junior and senior, as fathers and sons who have played for England.

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How Oxlade-Chamberlain joined the elite