'You want to show what you're about, but I didn’t expect it so quickly': George Sebine on Huddersfield Town breakthrough

The centre-forward on getting his chance, his role models, the 15 years of hard work behind his first senior goal, and his future on Leeds Road

There weren’t many things to smile about for Huddersfield Town this season, but the emergence of George Sebine was definitely one of them.

Standing at 6’3” and surprisingly pacy, 19-year-old Sebine — raised in Leeds — was called up by Martin Drury and Jon Stead for their first game in charge on Good Friday. They wanted to see if he could solve Town’s lack of physicality up front in the absence of Bojan Radulovic.

Sebine had previously trained with the first team and had even played the final few minutes of Town’s Vertu Trophy defeat to Harrogate. A hat-trick for the under-21s away to Peterborough in February did no harm to his cause, either.

That he became a regular in the first-team squad towards the end of the campaign, ahead of more established players, was a pleasant surprise to everyone — Sebine included.

He told We Are Terriers: “I just take it step by step. I don’t look too far ahead. But obviously you have it in mind: your goal is to play for the first team.

“I wouldn’t say I didn’t expect it, but I didn’t expect it so quickly. It was just about making sure I made my mark in the under-21s as much as I could, and trying to get a chance in the first team.

“Usually, when you get called up, you hear about it through someone from the academy saying that you’re needed for the first-team training.