John Stones joins Inter

There is a place in northern England where the roads linking London, Sheffield and Leeds converge. It was here, in 1086, surrounded by rolling countryside and farmland, that the first records mention a village called Barnsley. Home to just 200 people at the time, it gradually grew over the centuries into a metropolitan area of more than 200,000 inhabitants. Its expansion was driven by trade, which began to flourish around the year 1200, when merchants gathered every Wednesday to sell their goods.

It was in Barnsley that John Stones was born on 28 May 1994. Raised in nearby Thurlstone, within the metropolitan borough, he first fell in love with football as a child, kicking a ball around with his father and his friends. It was his father who encouraged him to join a local team, Penistone Church, which trained every Wednesday evening at a small sports ground in the area. In a fitting coincidence, the weekday that played such an important role in Barnsley's development also marked the beginning of John's own football journey. He took his first steps in the game at the age of seven before joining Barnsley's youth academy, having been spotted while playing as a striker in a local Sunday League match.