Bred A Blue: Episode 33. Ryan Ledson

The latest guest on our Bred a Blue podcast series is Preston North End midfielder, Ryan Ledson. Ledson first came to Everton’s attention when he was just four-years-old and he completed the full journey in 2014 when he made his senior team debut. He speaks about his upbringing with the Blues and being handed his Under-21s debut by Alan Stubbs when he was just 15-years-old. His big moment in an Everton shirt came on 11 December 2014 when he was one of four senior debutants against FK Krasnodar in a Europa League tie at Goodison Park. Kieran Dowell, Chris Long and Gethin Jones also made their bows that night. “The team was named an hour-and-a-half before kick-off and I was in it!” says Ledson. Sadly for the player, despite performing well, it would be his one and only appearance for Everton. A highly successful loan spell at Cambridge United in the 2015/16 season really whetted his appetite for senior football and he realised that his future lay beyond Goodison. “I had a year left on my contract at Everton so I could have stayed in the building but I played in a 21s game coming back after Cambridge and I remember thinking during the game that I couldn’t do that anymore.” He made the decision to switch to Oxford United where he impressed sufficiently enough to earn a move to the Championship with Preston. Ledson speaks about the teenage pressure of being capped at every level by England and the frustrating injury that prevented him playing alongside Club teammates Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Jonjoe Kenny, Dowell and Ademola Lookman when England Under-20s won the World Cup in 2017. Ledson also reveals that he had an agonising decision to make when the Under-17s European Championships clashed with Everton’s last Premier League fixture of the 2014/15 season at Hull City. He chose his country, despite thinking that he’d play at Hull. He is now approaching 200 games for Preston, but he retains his genuine affection for Everton and said this about one of his Blues teammates: “He’s the best player I’ve ever played with. He was a step ahead of everyone in training and played balls that you didn’t even think were on. And not only that, he was a top fella who really helped the young lads.”