There will be few footballers who can say they have trained with Mohamed Salah and been managed by both Micah Richards and Daniel Sturridge, but Daniel Atherton can boast the honour. The goalkeeper went from idolising Liverpool greats growing up to training alongside them as a 15-year-old.

Rubbing shoulders with Steven Gerrard and being on the receiving end of a ruthless Jordan Henderson display. Atherton’s Liverpool career is more unique than most, with Jurgen Klopp bringing him up front on against Tranmere Rovers during pre-season.

An injury to fellow academy graduate Paul Glatzel left the German head coach with few options off the bench with the game in its dying embers.

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“He (Klopp) says, ‘can you play?’ I said yeah, and I don’t know where the confidence came from,” he says.

“Next thing you know, he (Klopp) tells me to run inside to the kitman and get a kid and I think, ‘S***’.

“I’m running on smiling, pointing to Divock Origi, instructing players saying, ‘you go there, it’s me and Div up front’. I think I played well to be fair.”

Atherton would leave Liverpool in 2020, in search of first-team opportunities. But he departed his boyhood club with priceless memories and invaluable experience, playing alongside some of the Premier League greats.

How does a 15-year-old Liverpool goalkeeper cope with the step up to the first team?

“I had a stinker for the first few, so I didn't go back for a couple,” he says.

“I'm 15 thinking, 'I'm having a stinker in front of my idols here'. I was starstruck so I found it really hard.

“I'm training with like Steven Gerrard, Roberto Firmino and Jordan Henderson, I've cried watching them. My first session and Henderson bullied me, small-sided games, he must've scored nine.

“He chipped me on the line, megged me, gone round me. I remember saving James Milner's penalty, and he made me stay out, then scored 10 straight after it.

“In the moment, I'm just having a laugh with Milly, it's mad to say.

“Simon Mignolet was massive in the switch [of mentality], I used to joke all the time and if I made a mistake, I'd play it down.

“He could have easily f***** me off, he’s preparing for teams like Manchester City and big games, Premier League matches, European football but if I was doing something in training, he’d take time to look at positioning, decision-making.”

After leaving Liverpool and playing part-time football with the likes of Warrington Town and FC United of Manchester, Atherton, 25, finds himself in the weird and wonderful world of the Baller League - an indoor six-a-side football competition held in London.

The tournament is broadcast on Sky Sports, has two other variants in Germany and the United States, and boasts some of the biggest names in social media and football.

John Terry manages his team, Ian Wright and Alan Shearer are in charge of their own, while internet personalities like Angry Ginge and the Sidemen are among those to have franchises in the structure.

“We’re watching England vs Wales,” Atherton says. “I’m sat there with Ginge, a member of the Sidemen, Niko [Omilana], Daniel Sturridge, and we’re having a conversation about the game, normal conversations, then Idris Elba walked past, popped his head in and said, ‘alright lads’.

“Luther just walked past, it is surreal, it’s great.”

After initial pushback from traditionalists, Baller League is enjoying a boom, in part due to the high quality of players in the competition. There is a blend of talent, skillsters and ex-professional footballers.

Former Arsenal academy graduate Henri Lansbury has over 300 senior appearances and despite retiring at Luton Town two years ago, the 35-year-old laces up to play at the Copper Box in London.

John Bostock, once wanted by Barcelona, has recently enjoyed viral success after a superb free-kick cannoned off the underside of the bar.

Where else can you see Wright and Shearer standing on the touchline with a tactics board during a six-a-side game?

He says: “It’s not like normal five-a-side, it’s not like playing at Jeffrey Humble, the level is really good. The quality in every team is really high, it’s even better than last year but it’s a different game.

“We played Wembley Rangers in the first week, Ian Wright and Alan Shearer have got them as a flat-back four in a six-a-side game.”

It isn’t just players at the other end of the scale that are enjoying success; players in the Baller League have gone on to pen professional terms after initially playing part-time.

The shot-stopper, now of FC United of Manchester in step six of the English football pyramid in the Northern Premier League, still has aspirations of returning to professional football.

“It’s that exposure, six or seven lads went into the Football League from the first season, there is an avenue for it,” says Atherton.

“I want to be full-time again and get to the Football League.

“Someone could be sat down one night with their kids, maybe a scout, and they see little bits, they’re not going to sit there and think, ‘right, I want a goalkeeper who is facing three strikers, dinking it over attackers’ heads and shooting from the halfway line’, I don’t do that in 11-a-side but it’s that exposure.

“Clubs have got databases with names, someone might like you and someone at the club might say, ‘get him in to give him an opportunity’.

“People are getting opportunities they’d never get because they play in a six-a-side league live on Sky, there is that pathway there, I can’t speak highly enough of it, I love it.”

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