The Best that Never Was (Charlton Academy)

paulbaconsarnie said:

masicat said:

Was a Vietnamese boat boy many years ago, Da Vin Nguyen ( sic ). Story at the time was that he was going to be a superstar. Was then discovered he wasn’t 13 years old, he was 16. That changed everything. Maybe someone on here can confirm if that’s true as it was a rumour.

Jermaine Darlington was another. Manager at the time chose Millwall away for his debut as a 16 year old. Again, I’m not sure how much is true and how much is rumour. 

Yeah I mentioned The Vin Nguyen further up the thread. Saw him a few times playing for the reserves when the games were at Welling and thought he would go on to good things.
Think there was some doubting his legal status to be in the country but not sure of the details.

Think Mark Tivey also made his debut with Jermaine Darlington in that Millwall match.

If it's who I'm thinking off played against him quite a lot. He was a year group younger than me. From memory he went to Coopers School and I remember the rumours about his age but don't think it was ever proved. he just had a really bad attitude when it came to training etc. At 14 he was often the best player on the pitch, by 18/19 everyone had caught up and passed him and 15 mins into a game he'd give up.