Michael Johnson was born on the 24th of February 1988 in Urmston, Manchester and began his youth career with Leeds United before joining Rotterdam club Excelsior in 2000 and Everton in 2002. He joined his only senior club Manchester City in 2004, graduating to the first team in 2006 and was part of the Manchester City youth team that reached the 2006 FA Youth Cup Final. Michael was skipper of the FA Youth Cup runners-up team in the absence of Micah Richards during the 2005–06 season and became the 20th Academy Graduate to progress from Platt Lane to the City first team, making his debut away for manager Stuart Pearce at Wigan on the 21st of October 2006. Following his debut for City under Stuart Pearce, it was in his next season under former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson that he rose to Premier League prominence. His ability to run with the ball, score goals and operate box-to-box caught the eye both locally and nationally with Eriksson stating, "He was fantastic, incredible.You should ask Dietmar Hamann about him. He said he was the best young midfielder he ever played with." The former Bayern Munich, Newcastle, Liverpool, City and Germany midfielder confirms. "He was probably the most complete young player I've seen. Johnno was more of a strategic player, he would read the game and would be two or three steps ahead. He had this instinctive knowledge where everything he did was right. It just came to him with such ease. He was so gifted." Michael was just 18 at the time but he played with an elegance, control and appreciation of space that left City supporters of a certain generation making comparisons with Colin Bell. 'FEC', they used to call Johnson: Future England Captain.
Michael was regarded as the jewel in the crown of City’s pre-Abu Dhabi youth set-up and was the subject of a £10m bid from Liverpool, but the former England youth international not only suffered a series of injury problems, but also caused considerable disquiet behind the scenes because of his attitude towards being a professional footballer and, specifically, his fondness for a night out. This succession of injuries – hamstring, double hernia and knee halted his progress and coincided with a battle against depression before his contract was cancelled by City in late 2012, with Michael just 24. Michael has said, "I started to feel the effects from that. Myself thinking if I'm not
playing is this all I am? Am I 'Mike the footballer'? I didn't want to
be that, I wanted to have my own confidence, to be 'Mike the person'." He admits he buckled under the pressure of living up to the hype. "It would affect anybody," he said. "Pressure affects everybody, but people deal with it in different ways. We all have different skill sets, whether it is football or any job, and I don’t think I had the best skill sets to deal with it. That was part of the reason why I wasn’t able to make the most of my ability, along with the injuries. I am not being in any way critical of City, but the general view within the game is that you are a footballer, you are paid well, so there must be a road-block somewhere. People in the game sometimes forget that footballers are humans, but, unfortunately, it is a macho industry, so it was difficult. Football is a hard environment and people deal with it in different ways. Some love the structure and thrive on the pressure. But other people, introverted people, maybe don’t like it or embrace it in the same way. It affected me in a negative way and it is one of the reasons why I opted to get out of it, to help myself." As one of the best young players to emerge through Manchester City's academy in the past decade, Michael was paid off from his contract after the club finally ran out of patience with him. It shows that not all talented teenagers can deal with the trappings of success as he struggled to deal with the limelight professional football at the highest level brought.
Michael Johnson still remains one of English football's greatest 'what-if' stories of the past 15 years.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/05/footballs-nearly-men-royston-drenthe.html
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