HE may be one of the top referees in the Premier League, but Michael Oliver almost gave up on football altogether when he was rejected by Newcastle United and Sunderland as a teenager.

Ashington-born Oliver, now 34, was a promising centre-half in his schooldays and after failing to make the grade after several years with Newcastle, briefly joined Sunderland’s academy.

But then came the day, aged 14, when Sunderland also decided Oliver would not be good enough to be a professional footballer. Like so many who received that devastating news, Oliver admitted he was ready to turn his back on the game completely.

Thankfully his father Clive, himself a former Football League referee, persuaded Oliver to take up the whistle and try the black outfit for size. Speaking to Martin Gray Football Academy students at Darlington College, Oliver admitted he was a reluctant referee in his early days.

He said: “I loved playing. I had lots of ability but no heart. I was too small, too lightweight. When I left Sunderland, I’d had enough. I was going to have a year off, because I really didn’t want to play at all, and my dad said, ‘Why don’t you take the referee’s course?’ I had no real interest, but I just thought I will get a bit of extra pocket money so why not?

“It is an easy way to make cash at that age, even if I was not interested. Then I quickly worked my way up and started refereeing adult football at the age of 16 and then you have to learn very quickly how to deal with people and how they react to your decisions. It gives you a proper grounding.

“I am very fortunate now that I get the opportunity to do something I love and go to different places all round the world, and grounds in England I would never have visited, and it is all about having resilience and the will to succeed.

I am a big believer that, like a player, a referee wants to succeeds by testing himself and moving up to the next level and my mind-set was always, how to I move up from the Northern League, and that has continued throughout my career. It was all about small steps to the Premier League.”

He has certainly not looked back since officiating in the Northern League at such a tender age.

Now in his ninth Premier League season after 231 top flight games, Oliver joined the national list of referees in 2007. That season he became the youngest referee to take charge at Wembley, having already notched records as the youngest Football League referee and assistant referee and youngest fourth official in the Premier League.

He has an FA Cup Final and League Cup Final to his name and joined the FIFA list in 2012, making the UEFA’s Elite last season - although Mark Clattenburg’s defection to Saudi Arabia precluded any English officials from appearing at last year’s World Cup Finals in Russia under FIFA’s rigid rules - he is in the running to be in Qatar. The warm-up starts with the Under-20 World Cup in Poland this summer.

There have been setbacks too. Before his first Premier League game at the age of 25 years and 182 days in 2010 when he broke Stuart Atwell’s youngest record, Oliver’s original game was postponed by snow and then he suffered a serious ankle injury. He spent some of his rehab at Sunderland’s Academy of Light with Jordan Henderson.

Oliver’s Q&A with Martin Gray’s students - off-the-record encounters with Buffon, Sir Alex Ferguson and Craig Bellamy and his views on the benefits and pitfalls of VAR - was to launch the Durham FA referee’s course which will become part of the BTEC qualification.

Former Darlington and York City boss Gray hopes Oliver’s rise through the refereeing ranks will inspire his football-loving teenagers to look beyond playing as a career option.

And Oliver said: “It was good to meet the students and see their drive and how much they love the game and it is nice to put a face to the name, if you like, in situations like this, and show that you are just a human being who loves the game as much as you do.

“We are normal people who love football and want to put something back, have a career in the football world. And it’s your job, which drives you. Everyone wants to be the best at their job to keep it.

“But there is also self-pride as well and the self-discipline to want to be the best you can be. And there is a chance to get to the top of the game, life a lifestyle and work hard at the job you have but it is the self-drive and discipline which makes you continue to perform and stay at that level.

“In the Premier League, the stakes are very high, but even in Under-8s games, you still want to win the game, be the best team, score the most goals. It’s all relative but there is always pressure on the referee in every game.

“You learn that every referee makes mistakes at every level and you have to think “how did I make that mistake?” “why?” and “how can I get better?” and have acceptance that, when you walk on to that pitch with 22 players, who will make lots of mistakes and as a referee, you will make lots of mistakes. It is just about learning from that and looking to get better.

And then came the hard part. A game on the 4G and MGFA HQ, Eastbourne. A return to his roots. A fast-paced game between the two academy teams with some confident, feisty and eager to impress young men, albeit on their best behaviour. And no linesmen.

A breeze for half-an-hour and barely a whistle blown although did one of the game’s best referees notice it was 12 v 12? I asked him afterwards. Like all good refs, he couldn’t possibly comment...