Almost overnight, Fulham defender Dan Burn has enjoyed a remarkable rise to prominence.
His stand-out showing in the weekend’s last-gasp 2-2 draw at Manchester United was followed by his light-hearted comment that he hadn’t made as many headers since his time in the Conference at Darlington, dealing with the Red Devils’ 81 crosses.
The fee the Quakers received in 2011 was not enough to keep them from going to the wall and the club folded with Darlington 1883 taking its place.
He signed professional forms with the north-east outfit as a 16-year-old but Burn had had experience of the world of work when he was employed by supermarket firm ASDA.
“I left school and a lot of the lads had been signed up to football clubs,” he explained to London24. “I went to sixth form. I needed some money so I got a job at ASDA pushing trolleys and stuff. It went from there.
“It shows how things can change so quickly. I try not to think about it too much because it scares me a little bit.”
Darlington were in administration when Burn first signed for the club in 2009 – their financial woes were a big factor in the Quakers being relegated from the Football League.
After a season in the Conference, Burn had attracted the attention of Fulham, as well as Everton.
But it was the Whites, then managed by Mark Hughes, who won the battle for his signature in April 2011.
After a year in the academy at the Craven Cottage outfit, Burn was loaned out to League One side Yeovil Town to gain experience.
His name will forever be etched in folklore at Huish Park as the man who scored the goal that sent the Glovers into the Championship for the first time in the club’s history with the play-off final winner against Brentford.
Burn admitted that Wembley experience stood him in good stead, especially when facing up to the likes of Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney on Sunday.
“That experience helped me,” he said. “I don’t think about the crowd, which is amazing considering how many people are there.
“When you’re playing the game you don’t think about it. Until they scored I didn’t think about it.”
Despite Yeovil wanting their hero back, Burn moved to Birmingham for the first half of the Premier League season.
He freely admitted that he expected to be playing at St Andrews in the Championship, not at Old Trafford but he is delighted to be ahead of his career plan.
He added: “I have always had a plan in my head that I wanted to play in the Premier League at a certain point but I’m way ahead of that.
“I should still be at Birmingham. To get the chance, the backing of the manager and the lads, it’s amazing and I’m not taking it for granted.”
His performances impressed Whites manager Rene Meulensteen so much that he handed him his Fulham debut in the FA Cup third round tie against Norwich.
His performances led to him starting at Old Trafford in front of 75,000 people, plus millions more watching their television screens around the world.
And he admitted that the thought of coming up against the likes of Rooney were beyond his wildest dreams when he was starting out his career, before paying tribute to both Yeovil and Birmingham.
“It shows how far I’ve come,” he said. “Even today, I was shaking hands before the game with Wayne Rooney and Juan Mata and stuff.
“Five years ago I’d have never have dreamt it.”
He added: “I pinched myself a little bit when I was looking around. I think the loan moves have helped me [with that].
“I went from playing in front of a few thousand, to 10-15,000 and then this is about as big as it gets.”
The performance should have caught the eye of England under-21s boss Gareth Southgate, but if Burn can maintain that level of consistent quality it senior Three Lions head coach Roy Hodgson may come calling.
But the unflappable Burn is not going to get carried away and is only focused on improving his game.
“I think we’ll have to wait and play a few more games,” he said. “I’m ahead of my target.
“I’m not taking anything for granted and I’ll try and get as many more games under my belt for the rest of the season.”
A more pressing concern is tonight’s visit of Liverpool in the Premier League.
“The games aren’t coming easy for us as we’ve got Chelsea in [on March 1],” he said.
“If you want to stay in this league you’ve got to beat the best so we’ll take confidence going into the Liverpool game and see how we’re going to get on.”
Footballers in the modern game are derided as arrogant and out of touch in the real world but Burn is not one of them – it’d be hard given his career path.
A large number of young players enjoyed life in Premier League academies and only ventured into the lower tiers for loan moves to gain experience.
Sometimes a gem crops up from the Football League and there is a rush to sign him – for instance Manchester United shelled out £15million on Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha.
But even then, in this day and age, clubs are more likely to be on the lookout for talent overseas that are generally more affordable – the likes of Blackburn’s Jordan Rhodes and QPR’s Charlie Austin are Premier League class players, but no club, as yet, has been prepared to spend the money.
Even rarer these days does a player emerge from non-league to shine in the top flight.
John Barnes (Sudbury Court), Ian Wright (Dulwich Hamlet), Stuart Pearce (Wealdstone), Les Ferdinand (Southall) and Chris Waddle (Tow Law Town) all made the step up and enjoyed successful careers in the past, while Crystal Palace’s Dwight Gayle made a remarkable rise from Stansted to the Premier League.
Now Burn is one of them, giving hope to those youngsters who dream of emulating him.
