As part of the Raised in the EFL campaign, we took a look back at Errol Mundle-Smith's progression into senior football.
Rewind to 2023 and the Lewisham-born winger was plying his trade in the Southern Counties East Division One (Step Six) with Croydon, having joined from Kinetic Academy earlier that season.
Three years on and the 20-year-old is part of the senior team at Norwich City, having played in front of crowds of nearly 27,000 and represented his country at youth level.
He signed for the Canaries' academy in 2023 and was offered his first professional contract the following summer.
Reflecting on his rapid rise from grassroots football to the Championship, Mundle-Smith said: “It’s been a crazy journey!
"Sometimes I still think back to those moments (playing in non-league) and it just makes me even more grateful for where I am currently.
"Playing in those lower tiers of football really helped me develop my game and get me to where I am today.”
After two and a half years at the club, an opportunity arose amid injuries in the first-team squad, with Mundle-Smith stepping up from the academy and quickly making his mark. The forward has since established himself as part of the set-up at the club.
"I feel like as soon as I stepped into training and completed an actual full training session with the first team, I noticed that the intensity was completely different; it’s such a big jump up from the academy.
"You have to adjust fast, otherwise it’s very difficult."
With 10 minutes to play in last November’s Championship clash with Hull City, Mundle-Smith was handed his debut by then head coach Liam Manning.
"I remember being on the bench and getting called over.
"It was just a surreal feeling; I couldn’t believe it.
"I was warming up and then I look over to see Glyn (Lewis) waving at me and I was thinking, is he calling me? I don’t want to run if it’s not me!
"I didn’t really have time to think about it as I was already looking at the set-pieces by the time I got to him, trying to take in what he was saying and by the time I put my shirt on, I was already on the pitch.
"It was crazy! Everything comes by so quickly and you don’t really have time to think about things."
Five months after making his club debut, Mundle-Smith earned his first taste of international football with a call-up to Neil Ryan’s England Under-20s squad, making his debut against Italy.
"I’d had a few thoughts about it and as thinking maybe I could get called up.
"There were a few hints around the training ground but I didn’t know whether it would be true or not.
“I then received a WhatsApp message from a random number with four attachments and I was thinking, what could this be?
"Realising what it was, it was just so surreal, I couldn’t believe it.
"It is one of the best moments I’ve had in my career so far, but I was very nervous going there; going to play with the best players in my age group for my country against some of the best young players in the world.
"It was absolutely surreal."
