From the cages of North West London to stepping out at Wembley as an England international, Tyrick Mitchell speaks movingly about the long journey to the top of the game, and what he has learned along the way, in the next episode of Palace TV series 'My Photo Album'...
Watch Episode One with Jean-Philippe Mateta here.
Having just turned 25-years-old, you might think it a bit premature for Tyrick Mitchell to be looking back on his career.
But that’s forgetting that the journey to the Premier League doesn’t start with a nervy teenager making his debut. If anything, that is the culmination of years of hard work – years of overcoming adversity to reach the top.
Mitchell is an England international and the youngest player in Crystal Palace history to reach 100, and subsequently 150, Premier League appearances. What a journey it has been.
It began in North-West London, were the conditions were far from pristine – but the competition was no less ferocious. “The cages in Hatch End were basically nothing: it was like a prison yard,” he remembers. Just two entrances which you used as goals to do 60 seconds or one bounce, one touch.
“Then Headstone Manor Park was where I first properly played for a team. Pinner Albion were my first Sunday League team. It was a massive rivalry with Headstone Manor, because we shared a pitch. When we were playing one game, they were playing another 10 steps away.
"Then anytime we played each other, it was like Inter versus AC!”
Off the pitch, life ticked along like any normal kid, but there was a dream beginning to grow. “Sam’s was like Morley’s before Morley’s – when we were younger, everyone used to go and get two burgers and two chips for two pounds!
“That was basically your dinner. That will set you for the whole day. That was massive for me, my cousins, friends – it was like a hotspot, so we used to go there.
“There were so many buses that would go past Wembley, so you’re always within sight of it. To look at it and see it and know so many great players from so many great nations have played in that stadium, so many legends of the game have played in that stadium… to be able to say I’ve now played in that stadium for England is special.”
Mitchell achieved the first step towards making his dream a reality during the COVID lockdown, coming on for his Premier League debut against Leicester City in the strangest circumstances. “It was just pure emotions,” he remembers. “I was just thinking: ‘I’m going to be on Match of the Day!’
“Match of the Day was a big thing growing up, so I was thinking I’d finally made it. I watched it after my debut, but then I stopped watching it because sometimes you don’t want to watch your matches!”
His first goal followed shortly after, against Aston Villa at Selhurst Park. “The best goal in Premier League history,” he declares, laughing. “It was the relief of finally ticking off that box. I got my first assist in that game as well, and we won the game, so I couldn’t ask for any better. It was just disbelief that I had actually scored.
“It’s about 10 different emotions in one. Naturally, you can’t wait to go and check your phone to see people saying congratulations. It was a surreal moment. It’s hard to explain exactly what I was feeling, but it’s something that’s unmatched.
“I was just running. With my celebrations, sometimes emotion takes over! You don’t even know what you’re doing, you’re just happy. It was a good moment, because Ebs was there, Schluppy, Wilf. It was a good moment to see everyone happy for me.”
Mitchell’s most recent Palace goal came in one of the club’s greatest performances, thrashing Manchester United on a ‘magical’ night under the lights in South London.
“I’ve been wanting to score more goals and to be in situations like this, so it was a nice feeling,” he explains. “Towards the end of the season I was getting in good positions to get shots off, and in one situation I tried to cross it.
“I remember going into the changing room and the coaches saying: ‘Why didn’t you shoot?’ In my head, I thought: ‘Next time I get in that situation, I’m not thinking about anything else, I’m just going to shoot.’ I shot to get us the corner, and then when Joa [Andersen] hit it across I scored. If I didn’t do that we wouldn’t be talking about this goal.”
The hard work paid off for Mitchell, who took the bragging rights back to his friends and family.
“United are a massive club, so it’s always good to beat massive clubs in the Premier League,” he says. “All my [friends] support United, most people support United, so when you score against them you can go back to your friends and you can trash talk.
“That’s how we grew up: when you’re supporting teams you trash talk to others. Now I’ve got the bragging rights over a couple of my [friends]. It was an amazing feeling because Man Utd are one of the biggest clubs in the world. To score against them is always a blessing. It was a magical feeling.”
Potentially the most magical feeling of all for Mitchell wasn’t to take place in South London, but around the corner from where it all began.
In March 2022, he reached the pinnacle, nervously warming up on the touchline, clapped on the back by former Palace captain Gareth Southgate, and sent on to the pitch at Wembley to make his England debut.
“It was surreal because it was in Wembley, which is local to me,” he remembers. “That made it extra special. It’s something massive to do, a massive checklist that I didn’t think I would have ticked off at one point in time, but I was able to do it.
“That is something I hold very close to my heart. It’s a blessing. It’s even more of a blessing knowing that the stadium is so close to home.
“You grow up seeing the arch lit up with different colours, so it’s always something that’s in vision when you’re dreaming. It’s amazing to actually step on to the pitch to represent England. It was just something that I have always dreamt of, and I was able to achieve it.”
There were a few situations, a few players, that when you come across them and share a field with them, you realise that you’ve actually done something that you can be proud of
—Tyrick Mitchell
That’s what makes Mitchell’s journey – and those of so many other players – so special. He’s gone from wide-eyed hopeful to playing alongside and against his heroes. He remembers the moments it started to sink in.
“For example, when it was [Sergio] Agüero’s last season and we played [Manchester] City, that’ss omeone that I used to watch on Match of the Day. He’s a Premier League legend, isn’t he? When I actually stepped out onto the field and he was there, it was surreal for me.
“That’s when it clicked: ‘This is a crazy feeling – that’s actually Agüero!’ Nine times out of 10 you’re not really starstruck, but there were a few situations, a few players, that when you come across them and share a field with them, you realise that you’ve actually done something that you can be proud of.”
What makes Mitchell reminiscing so joyful is the humble, almost abashed, sense of pride he feels in his journey from the Hatch End cages to the very top of the game. As he looks back at pictures of his childhood figure, wearing the shirt of local side AFC Wembley, he considers what that child might think of the established professional sitting here today.
“That person, he loved football but he didn’t think it would go this far, if that makes sense,” he says. “He just used to play football for playing football’s sake. If I were ever to go back in time and tell myself where I would end up, he wouldn’t be able to believe it.
“It was something that, in my head, was so distant. Obviously it was a dream, but at the same time so distant. Looking at the picture and seeing the contrast, it’s a grateful feeling. Looking at pictures, they’re a nice, distant memory, but I feel like being in it every day, the people you come across, the situations you’re in, that’s when I personally sit down and think: ‘This is actually real. This is actually my life.’
“That’s the biggest thing.”
Football is arguably the world’s last true meritocracy. It takes plenty of things to make it as a professional in the most competitive industry of all: a supportive community, inspirational coaches, dedicated mentors and, like anything in life, the benefit of good fortune. But most importantly, it takes years of hard work.
Mitchell puts it better than we ever could. “It’s something that I’ll forever be proud of. I’ll be able to say that I accomplished something that I basically set my whole life to do. In this world, that’s what everyone wants to do, isn’t it?”
Watch the full Tyrick Mitchell: My Photo Album feature in the video player below!