1st Pick

ENGLAND'S NO.1 WAS TOP CAT... AS MIDFIELDER

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BY CHRIS BEESLEY JORDAN PICKFORD is set to return to Sunderland for the first time since he joined Everton and became the most expensive keeper in British football in 2017.

But his old PE teacher recalls that the England No.1 used to score goals rather than save them for his school.

Back when Pickford was a pupil under Jim Welch at St Robert of Newminster Catholic School, in his home town of Washington, he was prolific in the centre of the park.

Mr Welch said: “I played him in midfield. You could get away with it in schoolboy football and put anyone in goal as he would have been wasted in there and he wanted to play out as well.