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Gary Pallister made his name as a no-nonsense defender during one of Manchester United (opens in new tab)‘s most successful eras, but his career might not have taken off if not for another sport entirely: skating…
The Old Trafford favourite made 437 appearances in almost a decade with the Red Devils, winning four Premier League titles under Sir Alex Ferguson – including the very first in 1992/93.
In his mid-teens, though, Pallister still wasn’t playing football at any notable level; he wasn’t even playing as a centre-back – until one of his school teammates inadvertently gave him a leg-up.
The ex-England international told FourFourTwo the story for the latest issue available to buy (opens in new tab). He recalled:
“As a 15-year-old, I was playing for my county in basketball, cricket and athletics – but not in football! I was scoring goals for my school team, firing us to all of the cups and league titles, and I found it so odd that the sport I was best at was the only one in which I didn’t play for the county. I couldn’t get a trial anywhere, either.
“Then, during one match for my school, our centre-back was playing abysmally: he’d been up all night at a skate marathon and was utterly useless. Our manager, who was also my history teacher, shouted at me to go in defence.
“He stuck me in defence for the next game, too. I was fuming because I’d always been the one getting the glory, scoring the goals. I told him that if I had to be a defender then I didn’t want to play, but thankfully he persuaded me. That was the big turning point in my sporting life, and it was all thanks to a team-mate going to a skate maratathon!”
