Meet James Maddison, Norwich's star man, the new Dele Alli and the best Englishman outside the Premier League

Exclusive: The 21-year-old is a graceful, incisive number 10 who is a joy to watch - no wonder Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester City have been keen on him for years

James Maddison has been in superb form this season for Norwich (Getty)

The biggest threat to the Premier League champions on Saturday night is a 21-year-old English player who has never played in the top flight yet. James Maddison is heading there – there is no doubt about that – but for now the Norwich City man is happy to take his own long learning curve to the top.

Maddison is Norwich’s best player and has been one of the very best in the Championship this season. He has created more chances than anyone in the division, he consistently produces goals and assists, and on his day he is a joy to watch, a graceful, incisive number 10 who glides past defenders, and who can be deadly from the edge of the box. No wonder Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester City have been keen on him for years.

But what is most interesting about Maddison’s career so far is how hard it has been. No padded life in a Category One academy for him, coasting through development football. He started playing for Coventry City in League One at the age of 17. Two years ago he moved to Norwich for £3million, was loaned back to Coventry, then out to Aberdeen to learn more in the SPL. Now he is established in the Championship, is playing for England under-21s, and is ready to take the next step.

That is why, when we meet near Carrow Road on Thursday afternoon, Maddison has the knowing air of someone who has already seen and done plenty. “Even though I’m only 21,” he says, “I feel like I’ve been in the game quite a while.” He has made 90 senior appearances in his career already and knows that had he been at one of the big clubs, he might still be trying to get his foot in the door.

“That is the beneficial thing about being lower down the leagues. Me being at Coventry, instead of a big Premier League club, probably helped me develop. You don’t get put in the academy system, playing under-18s and under-23s. I got to play first-team men’s football from a young age.”

This is why Maddison has been compared so often to Dele Alli, who is seven months older than Maddison. Alli’s rise from MK Dons to Tottenham and England proves that for some players, there is no better learning experience than playing, especially as a teenager, down in League One, against strong grown men, with little help from pitches or referees. What makes Alli and Maddison so good – their resilience, impudence and audacity – is not despite their League One education, but because of it.


 Maddison has been in fine form for the Canaries 
 (Getty)

“Dele Alli is probably the perfect example,” Maddison says. “He played loads of games for MK Dons at a young age. He got a move and kicked on from there, because he had that experience behind him.” Or look at Maddison’s great friend Demarai Gray, who made 72 Championship appearances for Birmingham City before moving to Leicester.

For Maddison it all started in the Coventry City academy, which despite all of the club’s problems continues to produce excellent young players. Coached by Richard Stevens from under-11s up to under-16s, his natural talent was obvious and soon enough he was involved in the first team. He made his debut in August 2014 at 17 in the Capital One Cup, when Coventry were playing their ‘home’ games in Northampton. He made his League One debut soon after, scoring a deflected free-kick in a 4-1 defeat at Boundary Park.

Of course it was hard but Maddison relished the challenge. “There always has to be a time when you’ve got to make that jump. I was in quite early and it was tough to make the step up. But the manager [Steven Pressley] believed in me and I kicked in from there. The more you play and train with adults at that young and tender age, the more you learn, and you learn very quickly. As long as you stay focused and work hard, which I did.”


 Much like Alli, Maddison isn't afraid to mix it 
 (Getty)

Playing for his hometown club as a number 10 was something Maddison had always dreamed of. But football is a food-chain and in the January 2016 window, Premier League clubs were circling, and Coventry were in no position to say no. Liverpool made an offer but Maddison did not want to go from first team football into under-23s, so he joined Norwich City instead for £3m, and was loaned back to Coventry for the rest of that season.

When Maddison joined up with Norwich the following summer, manager Alex Neil did not think he was ready for the Championship yet. This was quite the frustration for a player who felt that he had the ability to perform there. But he did not want to stop learning so decided to go on loan. Maddison had options to go back to League One on loan but did not want to, so decided to take up a new challenge in Scotland instead.

Playing for Aberdeen in the SPL was not unlike League One, “a tough, physical league”. “I got kicked a lot up there, the type of player I am, centre-halves want to show you who’s boss.” One game against St Johnstone, Maddison remembers being fouled 10 or 11 times. But he also got to play in front of 60,000 at Celtic Park, or 50,000 in a cup final at Hampden, experiences he will never forget.


 Maddison should get the chance to go up against the likes of Jack Wilshere more often in the coming years 
 (Getty)

Maddison was only in Scotland for four months – he played 17 games – but sees that brief stint as another crucial part of his learning process. “That spell definitely improved me as a player. Like I said, at the age of 19 or 20, you have to be playing games. The only way you’re going to improve is playing games and learning, being a regular week on week. Derek McInnes gave me that platform to showcase what I can do, so I’m thankful.”

What Maddison really needed was a Norwich manager who believed in him too. And he found that last summer when Daniel Farke arrived at Carrow Road, having been a coach at Borussia Dortmund before. As soon as Farke explained his philosophy in pre-season, Maddison, who had just signed a new contract, sensed this relationship was going to work. “I just got the feeling that the way he wanted to play was the way I like to play: fluent, passing football, possession-based, dominating games, it really suits me.”

After working hard on his fitness all summer, Maddison was in peak condition and Farke quickly put him in a central midfield in his 4-1-4-1 system. He enjoyed the role, helping to build the game, and then when Norwich switched a 4-2-3-1, Maddison was entrusted with his favoured No 10 spot.

To hear Maddison discuss the specifics of the role is to learn from a player who is, by his own admission, a “student of the game”. He talks about how he has to stay in between the lines, staying patient, not coming too deep to get the ball, but waiting to “get in the little spaces that other people don’t see”. He talks about how for some opponents he has to press high from the front alongside his centre-forward. But for others, like Wolves or Brentford, he has to stick on the opposition holding midfielder and disrupt his passing.

But Maddison knows that ultimately it is all about end product. “It’s all good playing well, doing pretty little turns on the ball or playing nice long passes. But you have to get yourself in the box to score goals and assist goals. That is what you get judged on.” And on those criteria he is having a great season already: seven goals and eight assists.

The most memorable moment yet was his winner, into the bottom corner from the edge of the box, in the east Anglia derby at Portman Road on 22 October. There was also a brilliant free-kick at Reading in September, as good as any he scored for Coventry or Aberdeen, the product of so many lonely hours on the training ground working on his technique. Or on new year’s day, the winner in 2-1 defeat of Millwall, arrowed into the bottom corner from Alex Pritchard’s clever pass.

Two years after signing for Norwich, Maddison is showing why they spent the money on him, and why they had to beat so much competition to do so. And if he were to leave Norwich would want far more than the £12m they got for Jacob Murphy from Newcastle United last summer. “It doesn’t always work out how you want it, and I had to be patient,” Maddison says. “But I’m a regular, in good form and settled now. This is what I was hoping for.”