Stewart Downing grew up on the Pallister Park housing estate less than 10 minutes walk from Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium where he will face Watford in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon.
His upbringing will be familiar to generations of English footballers. 'You're talking 20 kids on a field until late at night. The only reason I had to go was my dad shouting me in,' he says.
'We used to play against different estates, 11-a-side, you can imagine the tackles that flew in.'
For more formal junior training sessions, he'd get there riding on the handlebars of his dad's bike regardless of the weather.