Manchester City and England star Isaac Buckley-Ricketts was disappointed not to follow teammates such as Jadon Sancho and Mason Mount into the Champions League and European Championship spotlight.
Now it’s his turn to take a shot at glory. An FA Cup first round draw on Sunday between Curzon Ashton and non-league side Mansfield may not have been the dream growing up, but it’s a chance to roll back the years and show why he was once tipped for the top.
The football world was at his feet when Buckley-Ricketts was a two-time FA Youth Cup finalist with City and then won the European Championship with England Under-19s in 2017.
For City he played with his school friend Tosin Adarabioyo, now at Chelsea with Sancho. Brahim Diaz plays for Real Madrid and Lukas Nmecha has won caps for Germany.
Many of his England teammates received full international recognition. Mount, Reece James and Aaron Ramsdale for England, Ben Brereton-Diaz for Chile.
Isaac Buckley-Ricketts was once one of England and Manchester City’s brightest stars
He started the U19 Euros final in 2017 against a Portuguese team that included Rafael Leao
To underline his level, Buckley-Ricketts started the final against Portugal. One of their substitutes, Rafael Leao, is now a superstar at AC Milan.
Buckley-Ricketts has finally made peace with his journey and still only 26 have hopes of returning to the EFL.
Firstly, he must hope his National League North team Curzon pull off a cup upset at their small but smart Tameside Stadium, less than five miles from The Etihad on the east side of Greater Manchester.
A statue outside the ground symbolizes Ashton-under-Lyne’s proud football heritage, with images of three World Cup winners.
Sir Geoff Hurst (England 1966) and Simone Perrotta (Italy 2006) were both born in the small market town and Jimmy Armfield, who grew up nearby in Denton, was also part of Sir Alf Ramsey’s squad.
Buckley-Ricketts is happy to talk to Mail Sport about his own Mancunian roots.
“I grew up in Moss Side,” he says. ‘I was a big United fan. Obsessed with Wayne Rooney.
‘I was thirteen when City asked me to train with them. Tosin was a friend from school. Their scout came to watch him play and noticed me too. It was a surreal moment.
His Curzon Ashton plays football next to a statue of English legend Sir Geoff Hurst from 1966
The striker was ‘obsessed with Wayne Rooney’ as he grew up as a Man United fan
He joined Man City’s youth academy at the age of 13 and stayed there until 2018
‘To start with, we were based on Platt Lane. From there we had the big transition to CFA (City Football Academy). Everything started to get more serious.”
The standards were high. Buckley-Ricketts played in the 2015 and 2016 FA Youth Cup finals, scoring in the first, but City lost to Tammy Abraham-inspired Chelsea on both occasions.
‘You could tell with Sancho. He had the talent and on top of that he had confidence in himself because he wasn’t afraid to play against anyone.
‘Phil Foden was only fifteen, but he came to train with us. He had this glow. There was a realization around the club that this boy has something.
‘All the age groups were playing at the same time and there were rumors about who was playing well on the other pitches.’
Buckley-Ricketts lived with the best of them and England took notice. In the summer of 2017, the winger was a key member of Keith Downing’s team, which became European champions for his age group.
It should have been the beginning for him, but it turned out to be the highlight so far.
He was unlucky when City loaned him out to FC Twente and Oxford United. On both occasions, the managers who wanted him – Rene Hake and Pep Clotet – were sacked shortly after his arrival.
Buckley-Ricketss describes former teammate Jadon Sancho as someone with ‘talent’ and ‘confidence’
He had an ill-fated loan spell at Oxford United, where Pep Clotet was sacked shortly after his arrival
Shortly before his twentieth birthday he signed for Peterborough, but did not fit in with manager Steve Evans. He agreed to terminate his contract in early 2020, unaware that Covid would hit a month later, leaving him nowhere to train.
Although he struggled, it didn’t help the following year when Mount provided the winning assist for Chelsea in the Champions League final.
“It hurt to leave City, but I knew the chances of me breaking into the first team against Raheem Sterling were slim, so I felt ready to leave the nest,” he explains.
“Peterborough had a bid accepted but it didn’t work out. I’m the type when I get grilled, I don’t answer back. It was my first experience with an intense gaffer (Evans). I think he felt like I was ignoring him.
‘I have seen my teammates follow a certain path. I was never jealous, but maybe angry once, but not anymore.
“My approach now is I’m playing with these guys, so know I’m capable. I’m glad I played at a certain level and still believe I can do it. Until my legs stop working, I’ll keep trying.’
Buckley-Ricketts rediscovered his love of football with Warrington Town in the seventh tier and earned them promotion with a play-off winner against Bamber Bridge.
Last summer he joined Curzon. Although the club works part-time with gardeners and builders on their team, Buckley-Ricketts lives with his brother and uses his savings from the game so he can train as a full-time athlete.
He has scored five goals this season to help Curzon gain promotion to the National League and can’t wait to take on Nigel Clough’s Stags to test himself against professional opposition again.
Now 26, he admitted he may have been ‘upset’ that his career had not followed the same path as some of his former teammates
“I have the butterfly feeling I had on my senior debut for Twente against Feyenoord,” he says. ‘It’s an opportunity to see if I can still perform against teams of a certain level. As far as my skills go, I should be able to compete against them. I probably back myself more than I used to.”
On the other side of town, his good friend Tosin will face Manchester United with Chelsea on Sunday afternoon.
The gap between the two games is huge, but the cup match is as important for Buckley-Ricketts as a visit to Old Trafford is for Tosin.
There is only one final task: convince his mother to attend. “She doesn’t like being in the cold,” he laughs. “I’ll have to bribe her with an overcoat and some blankets!”
