Shackleton has been with the club since he was seven years old and has recalled how he used to be a ball boy as another Whites Academy graduate Sam Byram strutted his stuff on the Elland Road turf. Around a decade on, the pair are now Leeds team mates upon 29-year-old Byram’s return to the club for a second spell following his release from Norwich City.
Byram linked back up with Leeds to initially train this summer before penning terms on a one-year-deal, much to the delight of 23-year-old Shackleton who is now passing balls instead of throwing them to the Whites full back.
Speaking on the Official Leeds United Podcast, Byram was asked about Leeds opportunities for youngsters and said: “It’s always been a club where there is a pathway to play for the first team. You can come through the Academy at Leeds and you can play for the first team at Leeds and it pretty much has always been that way.
“There’s clubs that don’t necessarily have that – players come through and move, or the step up from Academy to first team isn’t really there. But at Leeds it is there and it kind of helps that there have always been people that you have seen do it so when I was in the Academy it was Sam Byram actually!
“When he came back I was buzzing. I was like ‘oh my god, I used to watch you every week, I used to be a ball boy and chuck you the ball, you won’t remember me but’…brilliant.
“He’s good. Honestly I’m just buzzing, we are teammates now, it’s nuts to me but when I was like 11 or 12 I was at the side absolutely idolising him. He came through the academy and did everything that at that age I wanted to do. I’ve told him all this anyway!”
