Henley-born footballer who almost made World Cup

IF the footballing career of James Lawrence has been unconventional, it is nothing compared to the story of his birth.

His mother Lynne was eight months pregnant when she arrived in Henley with her husband Steve and 18-month-old son Tom in 1992.

The family were moving house and were staying in Singers Close at the home of Lynne’s mother Jill Irwin, who was on holiday in Canada at the time, to escape the stress of the move.

It was on the evening of August 22 when Lynne called the doctor from her mother’s bed to say the baby was on its way.

Determined to have a natural birth, she asked how quickly help could come.

The doctor who answered the call told her he was halfway through a plate of fish and chips, to which Lynne replied, ‘Don’t worry, it won’t get cold.’

James was delivered 10 minutes later and the doctor was back in time to finish his supper still warm.

The story is a favourite of James’s family and marks the start of a unique footballing career that has strayed from the well-trodden path taken by most British footballers.

Thirty years later, the 6ft 1in centre back has made more than 150 professional appearances in leagues across Europe, playing 11 times for Wales, and is unfortunate not to appear in Qatar for the World Cup.

Yet he has faced more challenges than most since he started playing football aged four with his older brother in a park near their North London home.

“I always loved football growing up,” says James. “As a kid I only ever wanted to be outside playing.

“My dad was sporty and was a very good squash player but was never pushy and let my brother and I do what we wanted. I think it really helped growing up in that environment where there’s pressure. It was always my choice, which meant I kept that love for football.”

Mr Lawrence Snr, an architect who is now 67, could tell James was different from other children his age when he started playing in organised youth sessions.

He says: “You learn quite quickly if a young child has the propensity for something that other young children don’t.

“Small kids tend to run around in a pack when they first learn to play football but Jamie learned to stand in space and would nick the ball and do his own thing.”

Mrs Irwin, now 93, would make time from her job as a swimming instructor at Henley leisure centre to watch him play on Saturday mornings despite working weekends.

She says: “He would always stand out when I watched him play. He had the best balance and was very good at manipulating the ball.”

She remembers her grandson as a stubborn boy even from the age of two when he refused to continue while on a family walk near Fair Mile in the cold.

She recalls: “He didn’t want to go any further so he just lay in the snow. We had to walk away and pretend to leave him and eventually he came running.

“He has a strong sense of injustice and when he feels something is unfair, even as a little boy, he wouldn’t be able to stomach it and would make a point of it.

“He was also very competitive and would shout ‘red card, red card’ if he felt someone had cheated. He would shout it even if you were playing cards.”

James’s family were not the only ones to notice he was different from other children as he was chosen for the Arsenal youth academy at age seven.

Playing in the same side as current England captain Harry Kane, it was here that James first decided he wanted to play football
professionally.

“We had a great team full of lots of players who ended up turning pro, which is quite rare even for a club that size,” he says.

“I just remember how amazing the pitches were and it was a lovely place to be each day. You don’t realise how competitive things are. You’re just a kid who’s loving the chance to play football every day.”

It was one day while watching his son train that Mr Lawrence first became aware of the challenges James might face in his career.

He says: “A scout came up and asked if I was Jamie’s dad. I said I was and the next question he asked was when Jamie was born. I told him it was August 22 and he said, ‘That’s a shame, he’ll never play professional football’ and left.

“I didn’t know what he meant and immediately started asking other parents who told me about the relative age effect.”

The theory suggests children born closer to the cut-off point in an age group have a long-term advantage over those born at a later point.

Year groups in football academies start in September, meaning August-born James was consistently the youngest player in his team.

As his team-mates received contracts and moved up to older age groups, the younger and less developed James was let go from Arsenal when he was 11.

Mr Lawrence says: “He has been able to overcome it because of his mental toughness and his professional attitude.”

A year-long stint at the Queen’s Park Rangers academy followed but James’s focus began to shift towards GCSEs and it was only in the summer after his exams that his football career kicked on. His mother was offered a job in Amsterdam and the family followed her out to the Netherlands for the summer to test the water.

Mr Lawrence emailed coaches at several Dutch clubs asking if James could train with them and eventually heard back from HFC Haarlem.

James spent two weeks training with the now-dissolved club before they offered him a permanent
contract.

His parents had always intended their children to return to England after the summer but James took the club up on its offer and chose to stay with his mother in Amsterdam.

He says: “It didn’t really sink in until further down the line how much of a big deal it was to move to a different country at that age.

“At the time all I wanted to do was play football and I was quite an adaptable kid. There was a bit of a language barrier but everyone in Holland speaks really good English so I was lucky. It took me two years to speak Dutch and I was really helped by one of my coaches.”

He spent a season at the club before a 3-0 victory against the Ajax youth team caught the attention of the prestigious Dutch side who signed James that summer.

It was a dream move for any young player with Ajax boasting one of the best youth academies in the world but for James it was a big step up.

He says: “The biggest difference was in the intensity and training. I had to adjust to just how much was expected of us. There was also much more pressure as they are the biggest team in Holland. I wasn’t used to that.”

James noticed his heart beating abnormally fast during intense training sessions and was diagnosed with an overgrown heart wall.

He underwent surgery and returned to playing but a knee injury the following season stalled his recovery and James chose to leave Ajax in 2011 before he had the chance to break into the first team. He had short spells at other Dutch youth sides, including Sparta Rotterdam and RKC Waalwijk, but he still could not force his way into professional football.

His father says the relative age effect meant players like James were often “late bloomers” and did not get their break until later in their careers.

Mr Lawrence says: “Someone old in their age group would probably be moved up to a higher level quicker, while it took Jamie longer to break through the youth teams.”

It took a move to Slovakian club AS Trenčín for James to break into a first team football, aged 21.

He says: “That decision was based on me thinking how to get regular first team football but also play in a league of high quality.

“The opportunity came up as the club had a Dutch owner and was signing players from the Netherlands to get a Dutch mentality in the team.”

James scored on his debut and the team went on to win the league and cup double both that season and the next, earning them a place in the Europa League qualifying rounds.

It was in that competition in 2018 after they beat Dutch giants Feyenoord that James began to be noticed by clubs around Europe and that summer he signed for Anderlecht, the most successful team in Belgium.

His choice to play abroad meant James had flown under the radar in the UK but this high-profile move meant he could no longer be ignored back home.

He was called up to the Wales squad by manager Ryan Giggs in November 2018 after assistant manager Albert Stuivenberg travelled to a game to watch James play.

James was only eligible to play for Wales through his grandmother, who had been born in Pembrokeshire in 1929.

She had moved to Nettlebed when her father was forced to leave his antiques business during the Great Depression and her mother taught at the village primary school.

As an adult, Mrs Irwin elocated to Johannesburg where she met her husband Desmond Murphy, a rugby player for South Africa, and had two daughters, Lynne and Gail, before moving back to South Oxfordshire.

James knew of his family history and of his relatives in Pembrokeshire but had never visited Wales himself before his international call-up.

He says: “I was amazed that I had even been considered but never expected to make the team. They don’t tell you whether you’ve made it when they announce the official squad, so I found out at the same time as everyone else. That was when social media blew up.”

James’ inclusion had come out of the blue for many supporters, with “#JamesLawrenceFacts” trending as fans took to social media to find out more about this “unknown” player.

James says: “I think no one knew who I was as I had been playing abroad my whole career. I had never had that sort of attention and had to get used to it but it was nice.”

For his debut, he came on as a substitute when Wales played Albania before starting against Slovakia in a game against many of his former teammates from AS Trencin.

Watching in the crowd were Mrs Irwin and Gail, who had made the trip to the Cardiff City Stadium.

Mrs Irwin says: “He knew a lot of the other players and had lived with some. He had to mark his best friend.” A 1-0 victory marked the start of a successful campaign that saw Wales qualify for the 2020 European Championships, which were held in 2021 due to the covid pandemic.

James, who by this time was playing for German side St Pauli, was included in the initial squad for the tournament and travelled to Portugal for the training camp.

With just over a week to go until the tournament began, he was told he would be in the final squad.

But the next day he tore his calf muscle while playing an 11-a-side training game and was ruled out of the tournament.

Picking up an injury on the eve of what would have been the highlight of his career was a devastating blow for James.

He says: “That was a really tough time and it is very difficult to come back from something like that. I had gone from an absolute peak to an absolute dip.

“It was really tough watching them play at that tournament as I felt like I should have been there. To get through a time like that you just have to put your head down and keep working.”

James returned to the Wales squad the following season and helped them qualify for the 2022 World Cup as well as captaining St Pauli to victory against heavyweights Borussia Dortmund in the German cup. He has since moved to FC Nürnberg in the German second division.

His return to fitness was not quite enough to make the Wales squad for the World Cup, although he was selected as an injury reserve.

James says: “I am a little but disappointed not to be in the main squad and it is doubly frustrating after what happened at the last tournament.

“It won’t be as difficult to watch as the last tournament, however, and I will be backing them all the way.”

Despite being born in Henley and raised in North London, James will support Wales as they take on England on Tuesday.

He says: “I’m Wales through and through as they were the team who took a chance on me to play international football.”

Mrs Irwin says she is proud of the way her grandson has dealt with the different challenges he has faced since his birth in her bed 30 years ago.

She says: “He is really mentally tough because it is such a tough life. He is very quiet about his injuries and when we find out we send him lots of messages.

“He would never allow a negative thought and would likely just think, ‘That’s life’.

“I’m a very proud grandmother. He’s very modest and loving and he couldn’t be nicer.”