JONATHAN FRANKS made his Premier League debut at just 19 years old, but never featured in the top-flight again and ended up playing in Iceland.
Franks was at Middlesbrough at the time and he would see them get relegated that season.
He stayed with the club for three years as a squad player in the Championship following their relegation.
The 33-year-old now plays for Whitby Town in the seventh tier of English football, a far cry from his days on Teesside – and got there via a spell in Iceland.
He was given his Premier League debut by Gareth Southgate, but it was a contrasting day of emotions as Boro were relegated that same day.
Franks spoke to Planet Football about his debut, which was his one and only appearance in the Premier League, recalling the mixture of emotions.
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He said: “As a diehard Boro fan, it was really strange because we had been relegated but I had just played my first game in the Premier League for them.”
After three years with the club and and just 30 appearances, Franks left in search for first team football, but found it harder than expected.
The former England youth player took on spells at Hartlepool, Ross County and Wrexham before making the tough decision to go abroad.
He made the strange choice to move away from the National League and head to Icelandic club IBV.
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He recalled making the decision in his interview with Planet Football.
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He said: “I had a call about coming over to Iceland and another English lad, David Atkinson, who was there at the time, spoke to me about moving there, too,
“I discussed it with my girlfriend and we decided not to go for it as it wasn’t worth it financially, but IBV came back with a better deal.
“We had always wanted to go and live abroad at some point, so we went for it.”
Franks spent two years at IBV before moving back to England to join Stockton Town in 2019.
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