Once Raheem Sterling's England captain, now ex-Portsmouth starlet Sam Magri is battling back against football's cruelties

Days earlier, his former England skipper had been informed by Twitter of an Ebbsfleet exit, discarded with cold-eyed detachment despite a new contract tabled by the non-leaguers.

Sam Magri concedes he never fulfilled his footballing destiny.

A linchpin of England youth football stretching from under-16 level, he amassed 31 caps, featured in four age groups and, when his stock soared highest, was summoned to Liverpool for a week-long trial.

In the summer of 2011, while on the books of his beloved Pompey, the defender represented the Three Lions at the Under-17 World Cup in Mexico.

Magri netted a penalty during their 3-2 elimination at the hands of Germany at the quarter-final stage, playing colleagues including Jordan Pickford, Nathan Redmond, Nick Powell, Nathaniel Chalobah and, of course, Sterling.

Yet financially-challenged Pompey’s desire to cash-in on their starlet against his wishes initiated a nauseous tailspin to a once-promising career.

At the age of 21 and starved of a single first-team outing at QPR and then Crystal Palace, Magri was without work and questioning his footballing future.

It would be the National League which reignited the career of the sometime England captain who roomed with Sterling.

Now aged 25 and with the Hawks, Magri said: ‘There are some from that England team that, like me, haven’t kicked on – and some did.

’I’ve not been to where I wanted, but I’m happy, married and still class football as my job. I cannot ask for more.

‘It’s an unforgiving industry to be in, anyone that enters must have a thick skin, and when you aren’t where you want to be, it’s even harder to accept. I know.

‘I used to beat myself up about it when younger, but not now. As you mature you realise you can’t change the past, you accept it as one of those things and get on with it, you have to.

‘I was seen as the next big thing, representing England 31 times, on occasions as captain. I was built up, expected to be like Beckenbauer at 18, there was pressure, such expectation.

‘Suddenly you have to drop down and that’s the hard thing. When you're young and reading hurtful comments it’s horrible – now it doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

‘Pompey sold me to QPR, they didn’t want me anymore, then I went to Crystal Palace, and suddenly, aged 21, didn’t have a club

‘When you start a scholarship at the age of 16, the thought of not being a footballer never enters your head. At school I took no notice, I just wanted to play football.

‘Then you get released and don’t know where to go, I literally had no clue about anything other than football.

‘I had thoughts of quitting the game, at times I didn’t really want to play, but my parents stepped in and told me to keep going. My dad would remind me how lucky I was to be a footballer – and as you get older you realise that’s true.

‘Getting built up and built up and built up, then you’re not where you want to be. You go through that and then people are being hurtful, saying this and that because you had been made out to be the next big thing.

‘At times my parents were worried, not about anything seriously wrong, but concerned with me being young and dealing with such disappointment. Thankfully, I had my parents, but the game doesn’t do enough to support so many others like me.’

Before Dover and Ebbsfleet offered the first-team opportunities so pivotal to the development of any young player, Magri inhabited an upward curve.

Long identified as Pompey’s rising star, he found himself booked in for a Liverpool trial in February 2012 ahead of a potential deal.