In my local toilets, many years ago, scribbled on the back of the door was the legend, ‘Hard work made me a man’. Underneath it someone had scribbled, ‘My mum will make you one if you give her the wool.’ However, this is not what made Lewis Cook, Leeds United footballer a man.
In an article on the FA’s website, Lewis Cook puts his development into a seasoned footballer, at the tender age of 18, down to playing in the Championship. To say Cook’s rise to manhood has been meteoric would be a gross understatement. Since his breakthrough last season in Leeds United’s first XI, Lewis Cook has 39 Championship appearances under his belt totalling 3,132 minutes of football action. Such was his prodigious talent that he was playing as a regular in Leeds United’s Under-18 team when he was 15-years old.
The phrase ‘old head on young shoulders’ was invented for players like Cook, players who are experienced beyond their tender years. He broke into the Leeds United first team last season on the back of winning the European Championship with the England Under-17s and produced a series of displays, beyond his years, that had Leeds fans salivating like one of Pavlov’s famed dogs. Such was the impact that Cook made last season that he was voted the Championship Young Apprentice of the Year. Now the youngster is back in the England set up, this time with the Under-19s, and excited about pulling on the England jersey in the older age group and getting ready to face a fancied German side in Bersich Gladbach on Wednesday before travelling to Zagreb to take on Croatia.
How the Championship turned the boy into a man – Lewis Cook’s own words
On the amount of games and his improvement
“I think it was 38 games I played in last season – it’s mad when you think about it. I never thought I’d get that many games, but it was great for me and I felt I really came on.”
On the effect the Championship had on him
“I think I’ve grown up a lot, especially in the Championship as it’s a proper man’s game there and really physical.”
On how he survived the Championship
“I had to adapt to that quite quickly and I think that has put me in good stead for this year – hopefully I can really push on now.”
Cook has only featured in two games for Leeds in their Championship campaign so far, missing the middle three after a red card against Doncaster in the Capital One Cup loss. However, in his return to the Leeds starting XI, Cook put on an imperious display in midfield, culminating in setting up striker Chris Wood for a stunning 87th minute Leeds winner.
All quotations from the FA article ‘Lewis Cook: Playing in the Championship made me a man‘
