It started with windballs flying across a village green and a toddler smacking them like he knew what he was doing.
While other kids were wrapped up in school cricket games, Adam Wharton—barely out of nappies—was already turning heads with a tiny bat in hand.
Helen, a PE teacher and local tennis champ, was casually tossing balls to her youngest while his older brothers played nearby.
But even then, people noticed something different.
“He was two!” says Stephen Bird, a teacher watching from the sidelines.
“He was timing shots better than most Year 6s.”
Born With It: The Backyard Gymnast
Adam wasn’t just the kid whacking balls out of the square—he was flipping across trampolines in the back garden like he’d watched too much Olympic gymnastics.
The flips even made it into his celebrations later on, like the one after scoring his first senior goal for Blackburn Rovers in 2022.
But all that energy came with growing pains.
As he got older, knee and back issues started to creep in.
Coaches eventually had to reel in the circus acts.
A Wembley Dream and a Palace Hope
Now fast-forward to this weekend.
Crystal Palace is prepping to face Manchester City in the FA Cup final, and all eyes are on whether Wharton can recover from an ankle knock in time.
Funny enough, City had once tried everything to sign him as a teenager—but Palace won that battle.
The anticipation has been intense, not just in south London, but also back in the Ribble Valley.
The Village That Raised Him
From his home in Lancashire, Steve Frost, president of local club Wilpshire Wanderers, can literally see Wharton’s whole childhood mapped out—his school, his old football pitch, even the cricket ground.
“One day, Adam’s grandad came over and told me, ‘If you think Scott’s good, wait for this one,’” Frost remembers.
Turns out, grandad wasn’t wrong.
All in the Wharton Family
Adam’s older
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