How England's World Cup success was forged in Yorkshire

It was a fact regularly repeated during England’s last great summer of sport: if Yorkshire had been a competing nation at the 2012 London Olympics it would have finished 12th in the medals table.

Its haul of seven golds would have placed the region, Tykes were quick to declare, above South Africa, Spain and Brazil.

“An argument for independence?” one regional paper asked with tongue (only partly) in cheek.

Now, it seems, something similar is happening once again: six of England’s World Cup storming squad are from God’s Own Country.

It is, former Labour sports minister Richard Caborn tells The Independent, another “summer of success… built on Yorkshire steel”.

Fabian Delph hails from Bradford; John Stones comes from Barnsley; Danny Rose is a Doncaster lad; and Kyle Walker, Harry Maguire and Jamie Vardy all grew up in Sheffield.

A seventh, Gary Cahill, is from nearby Dronfield, a town which is, strictly speaking, over the border in Derbyshire but which is so close to the steel city that the semi-pro club Sheffield FC plays its home games there.

“It’s astonishing,” says Caborn, a former city MP who served as sports minister for six years under Tony Blair. “If you take Delph out of that list, the other six, they come from a patch of England – the Sheffield city region to all intents and purposes – which is about 25 miles square and has a population of half a million. It’s a remarkable achievement. People are very proud, and they should be.”

The obvious question, given such statistics, might be a simple one: just what are they putting in the water up here? What are they putting in their Yorkshire Tea?

“It happens too often to be a coincidence,” says Caborn at his home in Sheffield. “Not just in football, but across the board. Boxing, athletics, cricket, golf. Time and again, Yorkshire produces these world class stars: Jess Ennis, Danny Willett, Joe Root, Kell Brook.

“So, I think, at some point you have to look at the region, at the towns and the cities, and say, ‘Maybe we’re doing something different to get the most out of these kids, maybe we’ve got something right.’”

Martin Toms, senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham’s School of Sport, has spent a good deal of his working life researching this very topic: can the place you’re born and bred really affect what you achieve in sport?

He is adamant it can.

“What sports science has traditionally focused on is how a person’s biological makeup and physical training can help them reach peak performance,” he says. “But there is a growing body of evidence that suggests geo-socioeconomic factors are just as significant on an individual’s sporting development. That is to say: where you grow up matters. And that can be something as small as from town to town.

“No one’s saying these players aren’t all innately gifted. They are. But it raises the question would, say, John Stones have achieved as much if he had been brought up on the Isle of Skye, for instance? Probably not.”

In many ways this might seem intuitive. Clearly, places with better sports facilities produce better participants. “If he’d grown up in Norway on the slopes,” says Dr Toms, “who knows what Eddie the Eagle might have achieved?”

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But it is more nuanced than just having access to good venues and good coaches.

It is so nuanced, indeed, that one theory runs that a direct line can be drawn between England’s current Yorkshire contingent and the steel foundries and coal pits that once dominated the county.

“What these industries had were incredibly competent, well-run sporting teams attached to them,” says Dr Toms. “They were serious outfits, competitive, excellent facilities; and what that now means is you have a region where sport – and sporting excellence – is really in the DNA. It is a cultural isotope.”

When the pits and foundries started to shut in the Eighties, the attached sports teams did not necessarily follow suit. Many morphed into community clubs, maintaining the same standards and organisational professionalism. They formed a loose network of grass roots outfits, nurturing and developing talent across a wide area. One such outfit was Stocksbridge Park Steels, where Jamie Vardy first got his break.

“Because these clubs have always been embedded in the heart of the community, they reinforce – even if you don’t personally participate – this idea that sport is a force for good,” says Dr Toms. “And that is a virtuous circle because it means you get more people, more kids, going along to play, more opportunities, and more potential being discovered.”

Caborn, a former steel engineer himself, says this makes sense. “The players you used to see at Firth Brown where he worked,” he says. “You wouldn’t believe how good they were. Getting in the first team there, it was a badge of honour.”

But he reckons the development of cities like Sheffield and Leeds over the last 25 years have also helped.

Millions of pounds have been invested in sports facilities here. In Sheffield, the 1991 World Student Games – often criticised as an expensive white elephant – created an array of world-class facilities specifically designed to be used by both elites and the public at large.

Among them are Ponds Forge, an aquatics venue, which is regularly graced by Olympic gold medallist Adam Peaty while also having one of the best flumes you’ll ever go on; and the English Institute of Sport, a multi-purpose venue where Jessica Ennis trained as schoolgirl, pro-athlete and, finally, world and Olympic champion.

Crucially, says Caborn, all these facilities were aligned to a new tram system. “Kids can get to them so quickly and so easily,” he says.

A 25,000-capacity athletics stadium built for the games has since been mothballed because of financial losses. But in its place has been built the Olympics Legacy Park, which Caborn himself has helped oversee the development of. It includes a specialist sports academy, a wellbeing research centre linked to Sheffield Hallam University, 3G rugby pitch and IceSheffield, an official National Centre of Excellence in figure skating.

"What we have done over the last 25 years is create a sports economy here and an environment of expertise,” explains Caborn. “Now we’re reaping the results of that.”

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It may also, strangely enough, be that the size of Yorkshire’s cities help too.

A seminal study by Canadian sports performance theorist Jean Cote found – in the US at least – cities of up half a million people (the population roughly of both Leeds and Sheffield) tend to produce the most sports stars per head.

The theory goes that smaller towns generally have high participation in junior sports but do not, typically, offer great pathways for progression. In bigger cities, meanwhile, youngsters can get left behind amid the sheer mass of population. Because talent develops at different ages in different people, there is a risk that in crowded urban centres, those that do not show their full potential by the age of 10 or 11 get left behind.

Travis Binnion agrees with this – and he should know.

As the manager of Sheffield United FC’s academy, he’s the man now in charge of a youth system that brought through both Kyle Walker and Harry Maguire.

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The academy, which has produced other Premiership players including Everton’s Phil Jagielka and Burnley’s Matthew Lowton, is often held as a model of youth development.

Youngsters are taken on by attitude as much as talent; they are kept in school full-time until they turn 16; and parents are heavily involved with their child’s development through workshops and outreach programmes. The training facilities are based in the heart of one of Sheffield’s poorest estates, Shirecliffe.

“In the community, right where it should be,” says 31-year-old Binnion, who was himself a product of the club’s youth system. “When someone comes to Sheffield United, we see it as our role to help turn them into a man, not just a footballer. You can’t reach your potential in sport if you’re not reaching your potential as a person.”

But he reckons his job is often made easier by the kids that arrive wanting to make it.

“I’m not saying this is unique to Yorkshire, but I think it's ingrained in the culture here: pretensions aren’t tolerated,” he says. “The lads we take – and this was true of Kyle and Harry – they have talent, but they also have good attitudes towards work. Their parents work hard and they instil that in the kids.

“Just because you have a gift, it doesn’t mean you don’t have to graft. We teach that as a club, but a lot of the time it’s already there anyway. It’s part of the culture of the place.”

With the semi-finals fast approaching, I call Caborn for a final chat. We mention the 2012 Olympics and the inevitable question comes up: how would a Yorkshire national side do at the World Cup, I ask?

“Well, I don’t want to say we’d win it,” he says. “Maybe we should be modest. Let's just say we'd finish in the top three.”