The Premier league's forgotten wonderkids
Two young English stars who were being tipped for the top
Welcome back to Football Icons!
A slightly different format this week, with a focus on two players who burst onto the scene as teenagers in the Premier league. Michael Johnson and Francis Jeffers both started their careers in impressive fashion with goals, man of the match performances and comparisons to some of the best we’ve seen. For different reasons however, the form fizzled out as quickly as it arrived and both ended up playing football lower down the leagues.
Michael Johnson
Michael Johnson made his Manchester City debut in October 2006 at just 18 years old and his talent and potential was obvious straight away. This was before the Abu Dhabi Group takeover when Man city were often fighting to stay in the league. He made a total of 10 Premier league appearances in his first professional season, putting in numerous good performances and ending the season with 2 assists. His first goal for City came at the start of the following season when he scored the winning goal at the Etihad stadium in a 1-0 win. This brilliant goal sums up Johnsons playing style perfectly. A big, strong, athletic player who could run with the ball and turn defence into attack. He had excellent ball control and technique and could assist and score goals in equal measure. This goal was also when the British media really took note of Johnsons talent and he was being talked up as a potential England star.
The 2007/08 season was hampered with injury for Johnson after an abdominal injury kept him out of action for the best part of 4 months. Despite this, he still featured regularly for City and the hype around him did not dampen. He finished the season with 2 Premier league goals and 2 assists in 23 appearances. Other clubs were taking real interest in Johnson and Liverpool tabled a bid of £12m to try and lure him away from the Etihad.
The 2008/09 season started well for Johnson, linking up nicely with team mates Elano and Stephen Ireland as Man City were starting to build an exciting team. However injuries again set him back and a serious knee injury in the 2009/10 season meant Johnson would not feature in the Premier league again. He went on loan to Leicester in the 2011/12 season but again barely played due to injury and was eventually released by Man City in December 2012.
Johnson had numerous personal issues in his life impacting his performances and struggled with the cycle of serious injuries plaguing his young career. After being released by Man City at the age of 24, Johnson officially retired from football two years later at 26. A sad story of an exciting, promising young talent who’s personal challenges and injury issues prematurely ended a career with so much potential.
Francis Jeffers
A classic striker, Francis Jeffers started his career at Everton, making his professional debut at Old Trafford at just 16 years of age. His first full professional season came in 1998-1999 when he played in 15 league games and scored an impressive 6 goals. It was clear he had an eye for goal and his natural finishing ability and excellent movement up front was impressing pundits and the media. Not only was he scoring goals in the Premier league at such a young age he was also breaking records at international level. He became the joint top goal scorer for the England U21’s with 13 goals in 16 matches, a record held with Alan Shearer. This record has since been broken by Eddie Nketiah in 2020.
Jeffers performances continued to impress and the teenager started the 2000/01 season in great form. Despite ankle and shoulder injuries cutting his season short, he still scored 6 goals in just 12 appearances, a goal to game conversion rate of 1 in 2 which was one of the best in the league. These numbers had attracted interest from some of the bigger clubs and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger signed Jeffers for a fee of £8m in June 2001. With players like Bergkamp, Pires, Ljungberg and Henry already at Arsenal, this felt like a great move for “fox in the box” Jeffers who would be given plenty of service that his excellent finishing should thrive off.
Injuries and lack of form however meant that Jeffers time at Arsenal did not live up to expectations. He struggled to get consistent game time and regularly failed to impress when he did get on the pitch. This was a period when Arsenal were enduring great success. They won the FA cup in 2002 and 2003, however Jeffers was not included in the matchdays squads on either occasion. Arsenal won the league title in 2002 however Jeffers only made 6 appearances in this season, scoring 2 goals. His final appearance for Arsenal came in the 2003 community shield and summed up his time at the club. He came on as a substitute with the game at 0-0, however was sent off before the end for kicking out at Phil Neville. A fitting end for a thoroughly miserable period for the striker.
Jeffers was loaned back to Everton however did not score a league goal in 18 games and eventually fell out with manager David Moyes. He was then sold to Charlton Athletic who were in the top division but again really struggled for form. The move to Arsenal looked to have battered his confidence and he looked a shadow of the confident, cocky finisher we’d seen in the late 90’s. He ended the 2004/05 season with 3 goals in 20 league games for Charlton and was subsequently loaded out to Rangers in the Scottish Premier league.
After another unfulfilling stint, Jeffers came back to the Premier league for what was to be his last season in England’s top division. He played 10 league games for Blackburn Rovers in 2006/07 however again failed to score a single league goal. He found his playing time limited due to the good form of fellow strikers Benni McCarthy and Shabani Nonda. He was eventually sold to Sheffield Wednesday in August 2007 at the age of 26 and never played in the Premier league again.
The remainder of Jeffers career was played out abroad or in the lower divisions at clubs including Newcastle Jets in Australia, Motherwell, Floriana in Malta and eventually finishing his career at Accrington Stanley in 2013, retiring at just 32 years old. None of his stints at these clubs proved fruitful with injury and form continuing to be a struggle. A player who started his career with a goal to game ration of 50%, ended with just 40 goals in 235 league appearances for a ration of just 17% or 1 goal every 6 games.
Where are they now?
Michael Johnson- After retiring from the game at such a young age, Johnson opened an estate agent business in his hometown of Urmston in 2015. Since then he has been involved in various projects including opening a local bar and running a car dealership with his father.
Francis Jeffers- Jeffers has stayed fairly active in football since retiring in 2013. He has held numerous coaching positions, including stints at Everton, Ipswich and Oldham Athletic. His most recent coaching role ended in 2023 when he was assistant coach to Robbie Fowler at Al-Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia's second tier. Fowler was sacked as manager in October 2023 and Jeffers has not found a new role since.
Tell us your memories
As always we want to hear from you. Do you remember the fast start these two made in the Premier League? Hit the comments, and let us know.
Next week
A unknown French striker brought into the Premier league in 2000. He spent four successful seasons in England, making 106 league appearances and scoring 31 goals, including some very important ones. Thoughts?