IN an age when Premier League clubs have multi-million-pound footballers from every corner of the globe, Dan Burn is a welcome throwback to another time.
Burn admits he will never have another weekend like this one, which began on Friday when he received a shock first England call-up at 32 and finished with him scoring the opener in Newcastle’s historic Carabao Cup win over Liverpool.
Not bad for a Geordie, who grew up loving the Toon and Alan Shearer, and collected shopping trolleys as a teenager at Asda while he studied sports sciences at college and played for Darlington.
Burn and Newcastle have each followed a long and winding road to Wembley glory and the 6ft 7in centre-half from Blyth endured relegation from the Football League with Darlington as an 18-year-old.
He has suffered more ups and downs than a rollercoaster and he scored for Yeovil at Wembley in their 2013 League One play-off final success.
He made his Premier League debut at 21 for Fulham the following season, only to be relegated from the top flight.
Burn endured relegation to League One with Wigan in 2017 before helping them win promotion the following campaign and reach the FA Cup quarter-finals, beating Manchester City.
He finally became a Premier League regular with Brighton at 27 before he got his dream £13million move back to Newcastle, who released him at 11, in January 2022.
Even then he was not sure he would last long at St James Park because of the massive injection of Saudi cash and his success is his just reward for grafting so hard for the last 16 years.
“It’s been huge,” he said. “I just had little goals at the time to progress, you don't think about playing for England.
“It's just about hitting those little goals and if you do this, you think you can do that.
“I'm very, very thankful to the manager for giving me this opportunity. I just want to grab it with both hands.”
Burn admits he is struggling to take in every thing that has happened to him over t...
Burn admits he will never have another weekend like this one, which began on Friday when he received a shock first England call-up at 32 and finished with him scoring the opener in Newcastle’s historic Carabao Cup win over Liverpool.
Not bad for a Geordie, who grew up loving the Toon and Alan Shearer, and collected shopping trolleys as a teenager at Asda while he studied sports sciences at college and played for Darlington.
Burn and Newcastle have each followed a long and winding road to Wembley glory and the 6ft 7in centre-half from Blyth endured relegation from the Football League with Darlington as an 18-year-old.
He has suffered more ups and downs than a rollercoaster and he scored for Yeovil at Wembley in their 2013 League One play-off final success.
He made his Premier League debut at 21 for Fulham the following season, only to be relegated from the top flight.
Burn endured relegation to League One with Wigan in 2017 before helping them win promotion the following campaign and reach the FA Cup quarter-finals, beating Manchester City.
He finally became a Premier League regular with Brighton at 27 before he got his dream £13million move back to Newcastle, who released him at 11, in January 2022.
Even then he was not sure he would last long at St James Park because of the massive injection of Saudi cash and his success is his just reward for grafting so hard for the last 16 years.
“It’s been huge,” he said. “I just had little goals at the time to progress, you don't think about playing for England.
“It's just about hitting those little goals and if you do this, you think you can do that.
“I'm very, very thankful to the manager for giving me this opportunity. I just want to grab it with both hands.”
Burn admits he is struggling to take in every thing that has happened to him over t...
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Daily Record (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 18, 2025