Former Chelsea wonderkid offers advice to next generation after 'surreal' Barcelona moment

When was a youngster coming through the ranks at , matches against other academies helped remind him how close he was to making it as a footballer. There were plenty of experiences which helped him grow without him knowing it, but one which really sticks with him came against .

Cork was part of the Chelsea side which reached the final of the Milk Cup, an international youth tournament, in 2005. Future Barca captain was on the opposing side as the Catalan club won the final, but he wasn't the player who caught the eye at the time..

" scored a goal from 40 yards and Barcelona won the trophy and i was thinking 'who is this lad', then a year later he was playing in their first team, it was surreal" Cork tells Mirror Football. "So that was the first taste of knowing you were nearly on the edge of men's football.

"We didn't do very well in the youth cups but we had a good group. [Sam] Hutchinson, [Michael] Mancienne, [Ryan] Bertrand, Scott Sinclair, we had a guy called Miroslav Stoch who was very good. So we had a really strong team but didn't really fulfil the sort of potential we had, unfortunately, but the one good thing was a lot of the lads from that age group had really good careers."

Now the assistant manager of Burnley's Under-21s, Cork is looking forward to watching the next generation of youngsters in action as the Clarets host the 2025 Dude Perfect International Youth Cup. Chelsea are among the other teams sending a youth squad up to Lancashire, with Sevilla, Werder Bremen, Genk and Celtic the latest clubs confirmed for the three-day tournament.

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Cork remains grateful for the opportunities to travel which football gave him as a youngster. Now, as he begins to work with young players from a different perspective, he is beginning to take different things from youth football.

The former midfielder, who retired at the end of last season, presented the trophy in the last two editions of the Dude Perfect tournament. won won of the two finals in 2024, beating Valencia, while overcame Chelsea in the other final.

"I actually watched the Juventus v AC Milan game, which was nice for me to see other international teams' style of football," he adds. "The emphasis the Italian teams have on defending is exactly what me and you would think Italian football is.

"It was aggressive, defending well, man-marking. It's a really good experience for the kids to see that and experience it, because you can talk about stuff but until you face it and you're up against it you don't know what it's going to be like."

Youth football is different to the professional game in many ways, not least speed of development. Teenagers will enjoy growth spurts at different ages, offering short-term advantages, but Cork recognises the importance of quality on the ball at any age group level.

This is perhaps what set players like Dos Santos apart from others. The Mexican international enjoyed a fruitful career, winning a century of caps for his country, but the talents which set him apart at youth level only brought him one full season at Camp Nou before spells in Europe and North America - though it certainly didn't help his Barca prospects that he came through the ranks just after a certain .

"I think if you went to watch an under-13s game or an under-16s game, you'd see that some people aren't growing as fast as others, or aren't as strong as other children," Cork says. "So you need to have patience, you need to recognise who's good on the ball, and I think versatility at those ages is a key to understand what other positions need. I think the more positions you can play and the harder you make yourself at a younger age, the more it's going to help you in the long term.

"It's difficult becasuse the best guys at 13 might not be the best guys at 18, 19, 20, it's always been like that. So it's just patience and where to work with people and help them understand the game, that's the main thing really.

"We have the same thing [at Burnley], working hard, trying to score with every phase, the same thing for the first team all the way down to the 13s. So you'll see the same pressing, the same work, the same style of play, but it's just the individuals might not be as developed as the other people their age."

Even so, there are some elements which carry through. Cork's Chelsea contingent were a close-knit group despite few members breaking into the first team in West London, and he recognises how this served them well throughout their careers.

Cork played 300 games, but none of them for the team where he spent his academy years. Five of Sinclair's 119 Premier League games came for the Blues, and he added another century of appearances in Scotland's top flight. Even left-back Bertrand, who won the with Chelsea, made 28 of his 262 Premier League appearances for his boyhood club.

"The good groups are the ones that are close and have good team spirit, and you have each other's back and demand the standards every day in training and create the atmosphere where you want to win for each other and want to work hard and it's not all about yourself," Cork says. "If you want to get recognised as individuals you've got to have a strong team, and that's going to help everyone.

"The end goal was for as many of us to have successful careers as possible, and that's what, while i'm coaching now, i'm trying to say to everyone. It's not just about you - unless you're winning games and working together, people won't come and watch you. people won't come and take one of those. The team needs to be successful for you to get noticed."

When Cork watches some of the world's most talented teenagers in action over the summer, he'll be well aware not everyone will make it in the game. Even fewer will make it at the club where they currently play their academy football, but when one door opens, another can begin.

A lot of the time, the journey is as important as the destination. Morgan Rogers made his England debut in November after a circuitous route to the top, having been recruited by as a teenager before leaving without a single Premier League appearance, while Cork's Burnley colleague James Trafford needed to move to Turf Moor before earning a first senior international call-up.

"There's a lot on the line [at the Dude Perfect International Youth Cup.], not only one but two trophies, and it's just a really good opportunity to experience different styles - and languages as well, different cultures," he says. "From my trips abroad when i was younger, you take so much from being around different cultures, being able to understand people in different languages when you're trying to talk to other people, and it's good for the kids to learn it.

"We're lucky as footballers that we get to go away to a lot of different places. I just came back from a trip with the FA to Como, I was with Carlton Cole and I was talking about how lucky we are as footballers to see all these different places we wouldn't see if we weren't involved in the sport."

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