AS the world's most expensive football player is paraded before the media at Newcastle United next Tuesday, the club will surely be ruing the day they ignored 14 year old Alan Shearer's claims of being a striker and put him in goal.
This error of judgment has cost them stg £15 million the sum required to secure his services for his favourite childhood team and the payment of which signalled the start of the race for next season's English Premier championship.
"Shearer's coming home", chanted the Newcastle fans as news of the club's coup broke. Euro 96's top scorer had resisted the lure of several European clubs and offers of "big money from Manchester United because he wanted to fulfil his childhood dreams.
Not surprisingly, the Newcastle manager, Kevin Keegan, was jubilant about his coup, particularly as he has bought the player most coveted by the team who "stole" the Championship from them. "Yes, we've got the big one we wanted. This is the signing for the people of Newcastle," he said, grinning broadly.
Shearer could also barely contain his excitement about going home to a team managed by his childhood idol. "I am just so delighted. The challenge of returning home and wearing the famous black and white shirt, something that I have always dreamt of, made my mind up for me."
Manchester United failed to hide their bitterness and frustration at the turn of events, such was their confidence that this time they had their man. If the Reds had signed Shearer they would have been simply formidable for he is the only player in English football history to score 30 or more goals in three consecutive Premiership seasons. If any footballer is worth £15 million then Alan Shearer is," says Henry Winter, the Daily Telegraph's football correspondent.
Although Shearer's weekly wage of stg £30,000 does not make him the highest paid player in England, he is expected to make over stg £2 million a year through bonuses and an estimated stg £5 million in lucrative promotional contracts.
Born in Newcastle in 1970, the only son of a sheet metal worker, Shearer was named after his father and brought up in Gosforth, a council estate. At the tender age of three, Alan senior realised his son was obsessed with football and began to save to buy him a pair of boots.
"Part and parcel of being a lad in Newcastle is that as soon as you can walk, a football is thrown at your feet. There were five or six lads from my estate and after school it was football, football, football," Shearer recalls.
At the age of 12 he was captain of his school's football team, where his influence and domination of the game was such that his sports teacher, Mr Jimmy Nelson, recently admitted. "It Alan was ill, we tried to get matches called off."
When Kevin Keegan, his childhood hero, signed for Newcastle, Shearer queued for four hours to get a ticket for his debut. After the match, he patiently queued up again to get an autograph.
Nobody quite knows exactly why Shearer played in goal during, his trials at Newcastle. He insists he told them he was a striker. Needless to say, the team scout failed to notice the young goalkeeper's ability to score goals.
"All I ever wanted to do was play for Newcastle. I'd stand on the terraces dreaming of the day I would walk out on that hallowed turf," said Shearer.
Such was his determination to become a professional footballer that Shearer refused to discuss any other career prospects. When he left school of 16, Shearer repeated his ambition to his deputy headmaster, Mr Ram Wallace, who immediately quipped. "Pull the other one".
"I was only joking, as his mother assured me that he was really serious. So I told him Whatever success you have, come back and share it with Newcastle. I am really delighted he finally has done so and am really looking forward to seeing him in action," said Mr Wallace.
Southampton's talent scout, Mr Jack Hixon, attended one of Shearer's Newcastle trials and immediately recognised his talent. Typically, for his first trial at the club he scored five goals, and two years later, in his first Premiership game, he became the youngest league footballer to score a hat trick.
"From the first time I saw him it was obvious he had what it took. He was totally committed and I couldn't take my eyes off him says, Mr Hixon.
A quiet living family man, Shearer prefers to stay at home rather than go drinking with his colleagues. After Blackburn Rovers dramatically won the 1994-95 Premier Championship, Shearer famously recorded in his diary that he celebrated by painting his garden fence.
Despite his obvious wealth, Shearer has never forgotten his roots. While many pundits questioned whether he had the strength of character to play for his country after a two year barren spell, he did not respond. Euro `96 ended the drought.
"It makes me laugh when either the media or players talk about the pressures of playing in the Premiership. I look at the facts of my life I am doing what I always wanted to do, I am enjoying my life and I am being well rewarded for it. I remember where I come from and I am the first to realise the pressure of being unemployed, with kids to feed and rents to pay."
After his success in Euro `96, it was only a matter of time before Shearer left Blackburn. Although the club's multimillionaire benefactor, Mr Jack Walker, offered Shearer everything in his power to stay, in the end the only real influence he had was to ensure that the player did not go to their great rivals Manchester United.