Stock Exchange

A star on his debut aged 15, John Bostock is now 25 and has played for ten different clubs – but he says that experience has made him stronger, and he is finally settling down abroad.

- Sean Cole

In May John Bostock was named Ligue 2 Player of the Year for his performances as a midfielder with Lens. It was an award he saw as vindication for having rebuilt a career that was in danger of ebbing away.

In 2007, he had been Crystal Palace’s youngest ever player at the age of 15 and when he went back to school the next day, tabloid photographers were at the gates to take pictures of him in his uniform. Watched by some of the world’s biggest clubs, he left for Tottenham at the end of the season, a move that incurred the wrath of Palace’s owner at the time Simon Jordan. “As a young player you’re tempted to take it all on board and feel like a villain, but I realise that everyone’s entitled to their opinion,” says Bostock, who had previously been a season ticket holder at Selhurst Park with his father. “I didn’t really get too down about it. Obviously people weren’t happy with the way the transfer went but as a 15-year-old boy you’re not really in too much control over what happens. I just thought it was the next step in my career and tried to get my head down and progress.”