Gary Speed - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Speed was born in Mancot, Wales, although his parents Roger and Carol, sister Lesley and sons Thomas and Edward were all born in Chester on the English side of the border. He attended Hawarden High School, which Michael Owen would later attend.

He supported Everton as a youngster, and lived on the same street as the club's former captain Kevin Ratcliffe who played kickabouts with Speed and his friends on occasion. Whilst at school he was employed as a paperboy and played for Flintshire Schoolboys, a local boys team, and for Aston Park Rangers. As a youngster Speed excelled at cricket as well as football.

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