Anthony Gordon
Country: England
Age: 25
Club: FC Barcelona
League: La Liga
Position: Left Winger
Club History: Everton, Preston (loan), Newcastle Utd, FC Barcelona
Major Honours: 1 X League Cup (Newcastle Utd)
I got scouted from Liverpool from my Sunday League team. I was just bouncing about playing for different teams. And then they released me. It was tough to deal with at the time but I think it's character building.”
— Anthony Gordon
Sportimage | Alamy
Anthony Gordon: No Third Chance Needed
Liverpool, the Merseyside derby, and a city where football runs through the walls. While Anfield and Goodison Park staged their fiercest battles on the pitch, a boy was quietly finding his footing in the streets between them.
Born into an entirely ordinary family, he grew up with a father who kept goals for local clubs and told him to shoot, to keep shooting — at a time when a World Cup spotlight felt like another world entirely. Liverpool's academy looked at him and said no. So he crossed the city to Everton.
Everton said no too.
Maybe I'm not good enough. Maybe the school pitch is my ceiling. That thought must have crossed his mind at some point. But the teachers who watched him play remember it differently — on the grass, he was something else entirely.
“He attended early in the morning, he would leave in the afternoon to take part in the club programme training and then would spend the night with our staff as well at Finch Farm at the training ground.”
- Deeney, (Gordon's head of year when he came to Wade Deacon)
All he wanted was one more shot. Everton gave it to him, and this time he came back not simply as another academy prospect, but with something to prove to everyone who had looked the other way. The hype that gathered around him at Goodison was louder than he had anticipated — but the instability of those Everton years never quite allowed him to plant his feet at the centre of things.
Then came Newcastle. Eddie Howe needed a left winger he could trust, and he turned to a player he had watched closely enough to know what he was getting. The Magpies were rebuilding their identity, and Gordon became one of the clearest expressions of what that project could produce — direct, relentless, difficult to contain.
“Since I heard of the interest, I was always convinced Newcastle were for me. I think the fan base and the city really suits me as a person.”
- Anthony Gordon
For a stretch, he was the sharpest thing about a Newcastle side that briefly felt like it was going somewhere significant. Gordon helped Newcastle win their first major trophy since 1969 by winning the League Cup. That version of the club has since faded. Gordon himself has not.
"Ant, I'd probably categorise him as a winner. He wants to win everything, he's a real competitor. He's got that streak to him that I think all top players need where he's very single-minded, very focused.”
- Eddie Howe
In the 2026 FIFA World Cup Gordon became one of the focal points of the England attack leading the line from the left flank. He played 6 games scoring 1 and assisting 3 more as England made it to the Semi Final. His goal against Argentina looked like it would be one of the most important goals in English history until a late comeback led by Lionel Messi.
The boy from Merseyside is just getting started. As he is starting for the National team and now one of the biggest clubs in world football.
Football gave Anthony Gordon two chances. He is standing at the entrance to the Camp Nou now, pulling on a Barcelona shirt, with nothing left to wait for.
No third chance needed. He already knows what to do with the one in front of him.
Mark Pain | Alamy
Written by Daniel Dar