Ed Devine was just 11-years-old when he found his footballing dreams shot down, released by boyhood club Hull City.
“I came in for an end of season review, like you do every year,” he remembers today. “They sat me down, the coaches, and told me I was going to be released.
“I was absolutely gutted but now, looking back, I think it was one of the best things that happened to me.”
Fast-forward seven years and Devine, now 18, has signed his first professional contract in football with the club he grew up supporting – the same club that deemed him not good enough as a boy. Hull City.
Now, he wants to use his story to inspire other young footballers facing rejection – because he is, he says, living proof that one opinion does not define a footballer.
Devine was aged just nine when he was noticed by scouts while he played for Hessle Rangers. After a successful trial with the Tigers, he joined them during the 2015/16 season when the club were promoted to the Premier League.
Trying to keep it quiet at school proved hard.
He says that playing for the biggest football club in the area quickly became a key part of his identity: “at that age, I was just buzzing to be playing for them.”
Which meant, two years later – when he was dropped – it was painful having to tell people he no longer played for the club.
“You’ve got to go back to school and tell your mates,” the left-back recalls. “It was hard.”
But today Devine looks back on that period of his life as key part of who he now is. Some might call it the making of the man.
He turned his back on the pressure-cooker of academy football and took his parents’ advice: enjoy your football again. And, while playing for a local club, he managed to do exactly that.
Then, after finding his passion for the beautiful game once again, he was spotted – and signed by – National League club Scunthorpe United.
“I needed a reset period to find my feet again and start enjoying football again,” the youngster says. “After finding my feet and testing myself at grassroots, it was almost the natural progression (to go to Scunthorpe) to see what standard I was truly capable of.”
Then, in February 2023, when Devine was 16, he was invited for a trial back at Bishop Burton College, where Hull City Academy are based. The trial was a success, and he signed a scholarship. Within just a few months, the youngster found himself thrust into the Under-21s team – barely five years after he’d been dropped by the club.
“The jump is big in physicality, but it’s also the age, intensity and speed,” he says. “I was 17 coming up against 20-year-olds.”
More recently, he’s achieved his ultimate aim by signing a professional contract.
He received a call from Under-18s manager – and Hull City legend – David Meyler one evening, informing him he would be training with the first team for the first time the next day, a huge milestone in the career of any young player.
“Nerve-wracking,” Devine says about stepping through the gates of the Tigers’ training ground that morning. “Once the warm ups were underway and I had met the lads, I found my feet and enjoyed the opportunity.”
Lead professional development phase coach Conor Sellars, who takes charge of the Under-21s, says Devine’s redemption shows his character, and that he has some great traits typically found in top quality players.
“I’ve only got positive things to say about Ed as a person. He’s done really well on his journey. It’s down to him that he’s taken that responsibility and done well,” said Sellars. “After being released, the player himself has gone and done something about it and returned even better. Credit to Ed for his resilience.”
Penning that professional contract with his hometown club last month completes Devine’s redemption arc, and he says it means the world to him.
His story, and how highly coaches speak of him as both a player and a person, shows that young footballers can achieve big things even when suffering setbacks.
Devine’s final message to those who find themselves in the same position as he was aged is: “Just keep going, keep working, you play your best football when you’re enjoying it. As long as you keep working hard and playing your football, the rest will take care of its itself.”
His release and rebound sums up the character of the young man who the the EFL need to watch out for, a rising left-back named Ed Devine.
