How a Liverpool prodigy once picked over Steven Gerrard swamped

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It is an academy famed for producing some of England’s most talented players of recent times.

Jamie Carragher, Michael Owen and, more recently, Trent Alexander-Arnold are among the stellar names to have graduated through Liverpool’s youth system, before going on to become global superstars.

Not to mention, of course, the jewel in the crown, Steven Gerrard – argued by some as being the greatest player to ever pull on the club shirt.

But even Gerrard was once operating in the shadow of Jamie Cassidy – the teenager picked ahead of the future England captain for the FA’s centre of excellence, and considered by many the most prestigious talent of all.

At the age of 15, Cassidy was the leading scorer for the England under-16 team in the 1993-94 season with six goals, including three in the European under-16 championships.

Jamie Cassidy, a former Liverpool FC youth star, is awaiting sentencing for conspiracy to supply class A drugs and conspiracy to launder money

Cassidy alongside fellow youth team star Jamie Carragher

Jamie Cassidy, second left, with his teamates David Thompson (left), Michael Owen (second right) and Jamie Carragher (right) in 1996

A few years later he, alongside teammates Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen, was a key player of the Liverpool team that won the club’s first FA Youth Cup with a 4-1 win over two legs against a famously good West Ham team, featuring Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard.

Pictures from the day show Cassidy’s face beaming with joy as he held the trophy aloft at Anfield.

A first-team contract was swiftly offered by Liverpool and signed.

The manager of the England senior team Glenn Hoddle was so impressed with what he saw he invited Cassidy to spend time with the squad before one match because he was sure he would be a future international.

But despite the high hopes from his family, friends, managers and football fans – Cassidy would never play a match for Liverpool.

He would be released by the club in 1999 at the age of 21, before playing a few games for Cambridge United, then drifting into non-league football.

Cassidy’s life took a different path. This week, now 46, he will be sentenced for being involved in an industrial scale importation of cocaine from South America to Europe.

Next to him in the dock will be his elder brother Jonathan, 50, a former builder who headed the operation that for several years saw regular shipments of cocaine to Amsterdam from cartels in South America.

Despite being a star of Liverpool and England’s youth team, Cassidy never played a game for the club

The young star also attracted attention from England manager Glenn Hoddle

Cassidy’s former teammates Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher would go on to have glittering careers in football

Jamie was arrested in the wake of the law enforcement infiltration of EncroChat, an encrypted communications system favoured by organised criminals

Jamie Cassidy pictured with his Cambridge United teammates. After playing a eight games for the club he drifted into non-league football

From the Netherlands the drugs would be hidden in modified vehicles and brought to Liverpool, where Jamie would distribute it to associates across England and Scotland.

The multimillion-pound enterprise involved a money laundering operation and the brothers invested in several pieces of property and land in Liverpool.

Jonathan has one large area of land, near Jamie’s home, with enough water in it he was planning on turning into a fishing lake, according to The Times.

Instead of the glittering football career that his friends and teammates enjoyed, Cassidy is looking at a long prison sentence.

Despite joining the Liverpool Academy aged 12, his career began to take a downward turn after a series of injuries.

A serious knee and leg injury robbed him of his pace and left him struggling as he matured.

Jamie Carragher, who became a Liverpool defensive legend with 508 first-team appearances from 1996 to 2013 is just two months younger than Jamie.

Instead of the glittering football career that his friends and teammates enjoyed, Cassidy is looking at a long prison sentence

In his 2008 autobiography Carragher said Cassidy would have been a ‘would have been a certain Liverpool regular if he hadn’t suffered so much with injuries’

The spectacular fall from grace is thought to have devastated Cassidy

Gerrard also mentions Cassidy in his 2006 autobiography, mentioning his ‘pure quality’ banter and expressing jealousy at his opportunities to train at the Liverpool training centre as a youngster

In his 2008 autobiography he said Cassidy would have been a ‘would have been a certain Liverpool regular if he hadn’t suffered so much with injuries’.

Gerrard also mentions Cassidy in his 2006 autobiography, mentioning his ‘pure quality’ banter and expressing jealousy at his opportunities to train at the Liverpool training centre as a youngster.

But Cassidy is far from the only promising young footballer to have a career cut short due to injuries.

However with a potential promise so huge from himself and those around him, the spectacular fall is thought to have devastated him.

Manchester Crown Court will hear on Wednesday how he turned his competitive drive into a criminal empire.

He was arrested in the wake of the law enforcement infiltration of EncroChat, an encrypted communications system favoured by organised criminals.

Steven Gerrard would go on to lift the UEFA Champions League trophy in 2005

Carragher has now become a successful Sky Sports pundit. Pictured in April 2020

The Cassidy gang with be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Wednesday (stock image)

The end-to-end phone network code was cracked by the French intelligence services in the summer of 2020, and the information was passed to the UK’s National Crime Agency.

It led to the discovery that Cassidy, along with his brother Jonathan and their business partner, Nasar Ahmed, had been operating undetected for years.

Authorities discovered in six weeks alone Jonathan organised deals of 356kg of South American cocaine to come to Amsterdam – worth £28 million in UK street value.

The sophisticated operation involved the expert movement of money around the world – undetected by the authorities.

Jamie was eventually arrested in October 2020 at the airport after returning from Dubai.

In his house the police found a black machete, an encrypted telephone and a Greater Manchester police case summary of the operation that would lead to the gang members’ arrest.

Jamie Cassidy appeared in court via video link last month from HMP Forest Bank in Salford to plead guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs and conspiracy to launder money.

Jonathan Cassidy and Nasar Ahmed also pleaded to conspiracy to evade the fraudulent prohibition on the importation of class A drugs, conspiracy to supply class A drugs and conspiracy to launder money.

All three await sentencing.