There was no fairy tale international debut for Braiden Graham against France but this was still a week of immense value for the teenager.
Watching him join the Northern Ireland camp and spend time with the squad felt quite surreal. He looks so young - at 18, he is, of course, still young. And there he was, a player who I’ve seen leaving Finch Farm on driving lessons, preparing to face the nation that has made the last two World Cup finals and will head to the US, Canada and Mexico expecting to regain the trophy they last lifted in 2018.
His first minutes did not come on this camp but there is clearly a pathway for him if he can keep making progress. Senior football looks, at first glance, too senior for him yet Graham has defied expectations throughout his fledgling career. It is easy to forget he has already been there, done that, to some extent - Graham made his first team debut for childhood club Linfield at 15.
He is yet to follow suit for Everton but he was recalled early from his Christmas holiday to make the bench for the Premier League win at Nottingham Forest. That feat was repeated against Sunderland in the FA Cup days later.
Whether he will become the next youth player to make the Finch Farm academy honours board by playing for the first team remains to be seen but the teenager is set for a fascinating summer.
He has been prolific for the Under-21s this season - despite starting the campaign as a 17-year-old. A good sign has been that, on the few occasions he was tasked with dropping to the U18s, for the prestigious FA Youth Cup, he continued scoring. Another good sign is that he LOVES a big game. Goals in big cup matches and Merseyside derbies have been common features of his two seasons in Royal Blue.
Even though his stature has continued to see him used off the left rather than upfront, it is widely accepted he is ready for a new challenge. There has already been loan interest in him from within the Football League and it will be fascinating to watch the next steps of a youngster who has had a superb start to the summer.
Right now, he and those close to him should be celebrating a remarkable achievement.
Graham has grabbed headlines recently and is probably the most obvious player to highlight as one whose progress I will follow with interest once pre-season starts.
The rest of this newsletter will focus on:
Six more academy prospects whose next steps I’m intrigued by
What a football reporter does when the season ends
Recommended reading
A season wrap-up - from the best away-day meal to my favourite interview
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