The youngest player in Liverpool 's history is now without a club and the owner of a fried chicken takeaway in Birmingham.
Jerome Sinclair made his Reds debut at the age of 16 years and six days old back in September 2012. It came in a League Cup tie away at West Brom, with Sinclair coming on for Samed Yesil in a win away at the Hawthorns.
But now his playing career appears to be over just over a decade since he made his professional debut for the Premier League giants. Sinclair came through West Brom's academy before moving to Merseyside for £200,000.
He moved up to Liverpool with his father, while the rest of his family stayed in Birmingham. After spending most of the 2011/2012 season with the under-16s, he was promoted to the under-18s before quickly then moving up to the reserves.
A week after featuring in the under-19s’ NextGen Series trip to Inter Milan, he made history at West Brom. It was a moment that Sinclair has not forgotten about, though he insisted he had "no fear" about featuring for the senior team.
“Everything happened so quickly. I was in year 11 at the time. My first session with the first team at Melwood was the best I’ve had in my life — everything I touched was a goal," he told Football 25/8 YouTube channel in 2020.
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"I was just so happy to be there. Rodgers called me over and said, ‘I really like you, you’re going to be up here more’. Then, at the hotel, I found out I was on the bench against West Brom.
"Lots of the boys I played with there were ball boys that night. I’ll never forget that moment when the gaffer said, ‘You’re coming on’. At 16, I had no fear.”
Sinclair was sent a warning by then manager Brendan Rodgers about ensuring he did not let his obvious talent go to waste, having broken history.
“Now the hard work begins for Jerome. It’s no good being the youngest player and then drifting out of it. Thankfully, he’s a good kid and he’s really focused. That hunger to learn can take you a long way,” the Irishman said.
It was a warning that was heeded though, with Sinclair going on to make just four more appearances for the Reds. He continued his rise through the youth ranks and made his Premier League debut away at Chelsea in 2015, before featuring in Steven Gerrard'd final game at Anfield a week later.
“There were some huge names in that dressing room, like (Luis) Suarez and (Philippe) Coutinho but Gerrard was the best — there would be moments in training when he’d do something with the ball and people would just stop and clap,” Sinclair said in 2020.
“Gerrard was very good with me and made me feel involved. He asked me to play in his all-star charity game against Jamie Carragher’s team. I started in a front three with Thierry Henry and Ryan Babel. I can never thank him enough for giving me the opportunity to meet my idol.
“By the end of that season, I felt like I’d pushed through a big barrier. I thought I was back on track. Now, I can see I was only at the start of all the obstacles and all the trials and tribulations you experience in football.”
He trained regularly with Liverpool's first-team and scored his solitary goal for the club in 2016, in an FA Cup clash with Exeter. But contract discussions broke down and he left the club that summer, joining Watford for a compensation fee of £4million.
He struggled for game-time at Vicarage Road though, not making his debut until that December. He ended up moving to Birmingham City on loan a month later, but played just three games for Blues.
The striker featured for just 43 minutes in total in his second campaign at the Hornets, before joining Sunderland on loan in the summer of 2018. He made 19 appearances in total, but the Black Cats cut his loan short and he finished the season at Oxford.
Sinclair spent the following season on loan at VVV Venlo, but failed to score in 24 appearances before the campaign was cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a spell Sinclair regretted.
"I chose to go abroad after Oxford. Hindsight is a beautiful thing. When you get older, coaches have more of an influence on your game. They want you to play a certain way, it’s less about you as an individual. Coaching talent out of players is real," he later said.
His final season at Watford was spent on loan at CSKA Sofia, scoring three times in 27 appearances and winning the Bulgarian Cup. His last competitive appearance in professional football came on 26 May 2021 when he played for an hour of a 2-0 win over Beroe.
Upon his return to Watford he was released, before a failed trial back at Oxford United. Now he runs the Dudley Road branch of fried chicken takeaway chain Morley's, with little sign of a return to football.
