Jason McAteer has probably earned the right to be called an Irish footballing legend.
He earned 52 caps for Ireland in his ten-year international playing career.
He also played for Bolton, Sunderland, Blackburn and Liverpool before retiring at Tranmere Rovers.
McAteer is known for being an eccentric character and humorous storyteller but to make it as far as he did no doubt required a serious amount of dedication and drive.
Growing up, McAteer would have had trials at a number of professional clubs and one of those was a certain Manchester United.
In 1985, at 14 years of age, he went down in the hope that he could make it at the club, who were then managed by Ron Atkinson.
It wasn’t to be for the young midfielder and would have to go elsewhere.
Thirty-two years later and McAteer managed to dig out the rejection letter he received from the club and posted it on his personal Twitter account.
Found this Rejection letter from Manchester United – 10 years later signed for the biggest club in the world LFC #nevergiveupdreaming pic.twitter.com/9NEg5yt0er
— Jason Mcateer (@MCATEER4) June 9, 2017
As can be seen from the letter it isn’t exactly the most personal. In fact, it is a template rejection letter for those that went on trials at the club in 1985 with a few blank spaces left to fill in the name of the youngster that wasn’t going to make it.
But as McAteer says in his tweet, it was only a short ten years later that he signed for “the biggest club in the world,” Liverpool.
It just shows where a bit of hard work and perseverance can take you.
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