WATCH: An emotional Craig Johnston reflect on his football journey

Northern NSW Football name a building in Craig Johnston's honour on November 22, 2023 at Speers Point.

Transcript

00:00 Newcastle North and New South Wales Australia, said you are the worst footballer I have ever

00:04 seen in my life now. Swear words that you did back then. And I said, what now? I thought

00:13 he said now. So I packed my little bags up and went out. And I was jet lagged, I'd just

00:22 arrived, I was 15 year old. It was dark, it was snow, and bunny and barksies know this

00:27 stuff. In the cold north of England, mum and dad had sold their house. And Jack Charlton,

00:34 the famous Jack Charlton, was bright. I couldn't control the ball, couldn't pass, couldn't

00:40 dribble, couldn't shoot. Compared to all the other kids, 13, 14 year old kids at the

00:46 trial. So here's the story, I'm not going on about it. I've told it too many times,

00:51 I don't want to tell it again. I just want to get on and do it. But I knew Charlton was

00:57 bright. And I knew it was all about the soccer ball. Because my dad had told me down here,

01:03 there's an old toilet, just where that crate is. See that? There's a crate down there,

01:09 a container crate. That's my container crate, by the way, with skills equipment in it. So

01:15 where that was, dad taught me left foot, right foot. And he drew the goals with chalk on

01:22 the brick wall. And then he put crosses. So left foot and right foot, Reggie. Always called

01:27 me Reggie. After Reg Day, never called me Craig, because he loved Reg Day. He'd go to

01:32 Pippys for an hour and then he'd come back with a bag of crisps. Then he'd go back to

01:37 Pippys for another hour. And then he'd come and bring me home. But I had two hours, left

01:41 foot, right foot, control, dribble, pass, shoot. So being from that 15 year old, when

01:47 Charlton did that honest assessment of me, something remarkable happened. This is the

01:56 story in that Middlesbrough car park, because I was hiding from everybody. Hiding from Charlton,

02:01 hiding from the players, right? I was hiding from myself because I was so embarrassed that

02:05 I let my family down. And famously, I had to phone mum to tell her about the trial.

02:14 And mum picked the phone up and said, "Craigus, Craigus, how was your trial? Checked out?"

02:19 And I said, "Mum, he said I'm one of the finest players he's ever seen in the world. And he

02:25 wants me to stay." And mum, "Dad, dad, did you hear that? Colin, Colin, Jack Charlton

02:30 loves him." So then I hid in the car park. But it's not the hiding, you know, mentally,

02:36 emotionally and all of that stuff. It's the fact that I figured out how to control the

02:41 ball, pass, dribble, shoot by a series of skill tests on a daily basis so that through

02:48 a four and five hour period, I could measure how good I was at night than when I woke up

02:55 in the morning. I could literally be a better player tonight than I was this morning. So

03:01 that's my story.