Can Demarai Gray become a Leicester City great?

Birmingham – Where It All Began

Demarai Gray’s football apprenticeship began at the Cadbury Athletic Football Club Academy.  An amateur football club based in Birmingham, England. It has been a starting block for many including Liverpool striker and England international Daniel Sturridge.

Gray proceeded to perform and was later signed by Birmingham City. He spent seven years at their Academy, moving on to make his first team debut at the youthful age of 17 in 2013. More achievements followed as he won the Academy Player of the Year.

While he started to attract the attention of clubs like Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, he carried on impressing. He won numerous player of the month awards and notably his star performance came when he scored a hat-trick against Reading in 2014.

Demarai In Demand

Gray signed a contract extension with Birmingham shortly after. However, the deal included a £3.7million release clause which the Foxes used to their full advantage.. The calibre of clubs bidding for the budding talent started to rise. Crystal Palace and Bournemouth were reportedly interested.

The Birmingham manager at the time was former Leicester player, Gary Rowett and  he was impressed with the youngster early on:

Gray made seventy eight appearances for The Blues, scoring 8 goals. Not a bad return for a wide player aged 18 in a tough league.

England Youth

Gray rose from under-18 to under-21 level systematically. He received worldwide praise for his England form. He notched up eight goals in the process..

He’s also tipped for an England senior call-up before the World Cup Tournament begins in June 2018. Bookies drastically decreased odds from 14/1 to a favourable 4/1 since pundits raved about Sunday’s game against the Toffees.