Breaking into Sunderland's first-team at just 15-years-old. Becoming the Black Cats' youngest ever outfield player last season against Shrewsbury Town, the disallowed goal against Fulham at Craven Cottage in the FA Cup, his first Championship goal at home against Southampton and starts against Leicester City, the Saints, Leeds United and West Brom. Not many can say they've done that at 16-years-old. Chris Rigg can.
It's easy to see why the Black Cats academy graduate is coveted by some of the top sides in English football, having been scouted by Manchester United, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, arch rivals Newcastle United and even Bayern Munich in recent months.
But to understand how a first-year scholar is making waves in the second tier of English football - with three goals in 715 minutes of senior football - you have to go back to grassroots and playing football at Luke's Lane in South Tyneside.
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At just five-years-old, Rigg was already playing a year above himself for Tyneside Pumas in the Chase Holmes Youth League, based at Monkton Stadium. By the age of seven, Newcastle and Sunderland were both competing for his signature.
"There was three players at five-years-old, on the verge of six years-old, my son, Christopher and another player," Brian Bell told We Are Sunderland, Rigg's former coach at Tyneside Pumas. "They were playing a year above themselves and that’s how his journey started. My son wanted to play football and my uncle knew the chairman of Tyneside Pumas.
"It was a relatively new club at the time, it had been going about a year or two years. My son wanted to take up football so we went down there. They had a parent who was doing the training sessions and you could see that he didn’t sort of have their attention.
"I said to my uncle and the chairman, ‘Can I go in and give the guy a hand?’ Within the space of five minutes, I had them doing what I wanted them to do. The chairman was like, ‘Do you want to take over the team because we haven’t got anyone to do the team?’ If my son wanted to stay then I couldn’t see why not.
"I went towards the end of the session. In the 15 minutes I was there, you could tell Chris was a different breed. He was so elegant on the ball. When you see players getting the ball and they know how to shape their body and make the next move off. I think he was five-years-old but turning six that year. He was at the club and was head and shoulders above the rest really."
Tyneside Pumas - who sadly no longer exist - were based at Luke's Lane near Hebburn and by Bell's own admission, didn't have the best facilities.
"It’s a Rugby Club as well and with it being a relatively new club we didn’t have the best of facilities," he added. "It's just a field. We had cones, bibs and balls. So, it makes it even sweeter the journey he’s come from."
They may not have had the best facilities compared to other grassroots sides in the local area, but they did have the talented Rigg. The youngster would spend time at both Sunderland and Newcastle as a child, with both North East clubs were vying for his signature as a seven-year-old. The Magpies even sent club legend Peter Beardsley to watch Rigg in a cup final in what Bell believes was an attempt to sweeten the deal.
"We played a cup final at Monkton Stadium and I’ve got a DVD of it," he recalls. "It was the Chase Holmes League and it was recorded. It was around about the time when the academies were chasing after him. I think we played Whiteleas in the cup final and Peter Beardsley was there to present the trophy.
"I think it was to try and sweeten a move to Newcastle because they were both chasing after him. He just ran the show. We had won league titles, but it was my first cup final and it was just bittersweet. We went 1-0 down. For him going 1-0 down it was the end of the world. It was like ‘We must win this game’ and he grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and just took over."
Tyneside Pumas would win the game 5-1 and Rigg was already showcasing remarkable drive, grit and determination at just 7-years-old, combined with an already impressive technical ability. Impossible to predict his future at that stage, he was a child with all the right tools to get to an academy, but that would just be the beginning of his hard work.
Bell recalls the moment a scout from Sunderland approached him at Monkton, somewhat startled by their approach.
"I had a tap on my shoulder," he said. "I think it was a Sunderland scout at first and they just said ‘Can I have a word with you at the end?’ It was a bit like ‘What have I done, have I sworn or something?’ I didn’t know who it was.
"He [Rigg] was one of those players – you can’t look at a kid and go ‘Yeah, he’s going to make it’ because the percentage of kids making it in an academy is quite low," Bell said. "I’ve coached at Hebburn as well for quite a while, in all the years I’ve coached and coming up against opposition, I’ve never met anyone like Chrissy.
"I got asked this a while ago. You can’t really say you knew he was going to make it, but what I will say is, his determination and willingness to win, I knew that he had the right tools to make it. But it’s whether you've got the commitment of training two or three times a week, not being able to play out with your friends when you’ve got to go to training. He had the right tools in place to make it.
"I can remember one game we played and it was end-to-end stuff. My son played in the team and we always had Chris as a striker or a midfielder and he would change with my son. He would drop into the middle – what Chrissy was really good at, was if he lost the ball, his mentality was 'nobody else is winning that back other than me because I’ve lost the ball'.
"I remember he was going through and he got tackled. I blinked and he was making a defensive tackle at the other end. I think to have that mentality is ‘Yeah, I want to make it as a professional regardless.’ Just that mental side, you can have ability – I always tell kids you can have the best ability in the world but if you’re not right mentally, you’ll not make it.
"A lot of kids think I’ve scored 100 goals, alright, how many times have you lost the ball and then won it back? How many yellow or red cards have you got? I always believe in the mental side of football and Chris had it in abundance."
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From an early age, Rigg was special.
"You had to micromanage the other kids around Chrissy because even in those training sessions you could see he was head and shoulders above the rest," Bell added. "You knew that it was one player you didn’t need to coach. It was the rest of the kids you needed to coach.
"It was different managing Christopher. I don’t think you needed to. If he was hogging the ball and not passing it when he needed to, you’d tell him to get his head up, have a look and the pass was on. The only managing I had to do was tell him to pass the ball if he’d had a look and chose not to pass, or if he’d scored his hattrick, it was ‘Right, Chrissy come off.’
"He’d be gutted but once you explained why you’d brought him off, he understood. We were turning up to tournaments and steamrolling teams to the point where we were applying the next year to go to the tournament and the organiser was saying ‘I can’t let you come in because other teams aren’t willing to come.’"
Flash forward almost ten years and Rigg was making his debut for Sunderland in the FA Cup away to Shrewsbury Town. Tony Mowbray - synonymous with giving young talent an opportunity - made arguably the biggest statement of his career. Rigg became the club's youngest outfield player at just 15 years and 203 days.
"It's a surreal moment," Bell admits thinking back to that day. "Every time I see his dad, his dad will say ‘I’ll never forget what you’ve done for my son.’ I’m a humble person and I’ll say ‘Yes, I was there at the start of his journey but I don’t want to take anything away from what he’s had to do himself.’ I love that he’s gone on to do what he’s done but I was only there for a small part.
"It wasn’t like you had to manage him. When you were doing your team talk, you were going round every single player, this is the job I want you to do, especially at grass roots. These are the instructions. When you get to Chrissy, it was ‘Chrissy go and do what you do best.’ It wasn’t as though I had to manage him. It's nice to see someone who you know get a great opportunity. Yes, he’s had to work for it and sacrifice a lot."
Rigg may have been making a name for himself as a youngster in the grassroots set up on South Tyneside, but it wasn't long before he was showcasing his ability on the national stage. Playing for Hebburn Town Futsal team in nationwide competitions.
Steven Richardson, a UEFA B coach from Hebburn Town came across Rigg as he watched his son's side take on Tyneside Pumas in the Chase Holmes Under-7s League. Blown away by his talent.
"It was a massive league in its time," Richardson told We Are Sunderland. "I ended up coaching the tots at Hebburn and my son graduated into the Hebburn team. He was playing a year up so when we started playing Under-7s, he was only an Under-6.
"We played a team called Tyneside Pumas and there was just this lad who was popping goals in left, right and centre. We managed with every other team, but we just couldn’t stop this kid. I was like ‘Who the hell is that?’ It was Chrissy Rigg. From the age of seven or eight, he was just banging goals past us.
"We couldn’t stop him, we couldn’t do anything. You could just tell from that moment, this lad is special. All of his grassroots was with Brian and Tyneside Pumas, I wouldn’t want to say I’ve coached him or brought him up to be the player he is.
"Not at all, if anything, anyone who coached Chrissy probably learnt more from him than they did teaching him. He’s just a natural to this game. He’s an anomaly. It doesn’t make sense what he can do.
"That’s when we first came across him to be honest. That’s how he ended up becoming friends with my son. He was an actual U7. Chrissy was just a little bit special."
Steven's son Harry Richardson - who's a couple of months younger than Rigg but a year below in school terms - became close friends with Rigg after playing against him. With the Richardson's short of a player for their Futsal team, Harry convinced Chris to come across Hebburn and help his dad's team.
"Because of that Monkton league, my son Harry met Chrissy and I’d always ran Futsal teams from Under-5s, 6’s, 7’s, 8’s. Harry was starting to talk to Chrissy, like they do over social media. We needed a player for Futsal and my son said ‘Chrissy will come and play.’ I was like ‘Chrissy from Tyneside Pumas?'
"We don’t know him that well, it’s not something we usually do.’ Harry said ‘Go on Dad let him play.’ So we let him play. To be honest, when he first played Futsal, it was the first time he’d ever played, and we’d been playing for years. Chrissy was kind of eying everything up, weighing everything up. At first, he didn’t stand out.
"He did alright don’t get me wrong, we played at a really high level and he didn’t look out of place, he was still as excellent as all the other lads. He played in the next game, and my son was like ‘Dad, I can’t believe you don’t think he’s amazing!’
“I didn’t say he wasn’t, he had just done as well as everybody else. Then we played a tournament, and I don’t know, it was like Chrissy had read the game and understood Futsal after just one match. The next thing you know, he’s here, he’s there, everywhere. He’s rapid. We coach in possession and out of possession, then overloads.
"I’m a UEFA B coach, I’m not just a dad. This is something I love doing. I’ve done my Youth Module, 1, 2 and 3 assessed. My Futsal Level 1 and 2, Goalkeeper Level 1, it’s something I’ve done since I was 16-years-old. With Chrissy, it was almost like in a one vs one, you had an overload. If we were out of possession and it was Chrissy vs two, it was equal. It’s the only way I can describe it.
"His determination and his passion for the game was second to none. He was engrossed in the game. Nothing else mattered. He must have been nine or ten when he first started Futsal with me. Once you’re an Under-9 and sign an EPPP contract with a club, you can no longer play grassroots, but Futsal is slightly different, as in the leagues can allow you to play. The National Futsal Association or the FA, that’s mainly for academy teams and grassroot teams can join if they want.
"We got in that and got to finals, but we always played a year up. Chrissy was allowed to join because the academies were happy for him to play and he was within that age group. What’s weird about that is, Chrissy is only three months older than my son, and he’s the oldest in his year. They’re really close in age but Chrissy is a year up.
"I think people miss that he’s a very young 16-year-old in his year group. I don’t think people ever got that. If you look at academies they have people who are in the September, October birthdays, whereas Chrissy he was always one of the youngest in his age group for school."
Having taken like a duck to water at Futsal after just one game, Rigg went on to become the team's leaders, showing tactical awareness well beyond his age.
"He was with us on and off for a couple of years," Richardson explained. "Chrissy played a couple of league games for us and played a couple of tournaments. What’s good to explain about Chrissy within those times, this was across three or four years, he just came in and picked up the game as if he’d played it all his life.
"You’ve really got to understand Futsal and the difference between 11-a-side. It’s rapid. The ball is out of play but you’ve got to kick it in within three seconds, it’s almost like basketball. It’s side to side, the transitions, winning possession and losing possession. If you’re not rapid and quick you’ll lose the game.
"To be honest, when I first explained what Chrissy was like when he first played Futsal, he was like ‘What the hell is this, I’ve never seen this before?’ It’s like reading a book and he read it. That first game he played, he just knew it. He understood it. He knew how quickly you had to be transition wise, in and out of possession. Some of the lads had played it for years, but in one game he was already there.
"He knew that you couldn’t rest. He knew that if you rested, you gave the opposition an overload and they scored goals. If you sat back after you won the ball and didn’t get forward then you couldn’t score goals. You had to be defence and attack rapidly. Chrissy for me, he’s more of a centre-attacking midfield type player in the middle of the park.
"When he was growing up playing, even for Sunderland coming through, the amount of balls he won tracking back as a CAM was unheard of. You could see that in Futsal straight away. Without a doubt, Futsal will have helped him to see a different side of the game, it definitely helped him with the transition but there’s no way I would take any credit for teaching him.
"It was almost like he learned that game himself and he played it his way. I had my tactics, a pivot tactic, a square and a diamond that you play in Futsal or a three and a one and the fly keeper. To be honest, whatever tactic we had, we didn’t need it with Chrissy. You go and do your thing and we’ll do this.
"Don’t get me wrong, they all got equal game time, whether he was the best player on the park or not. He knew to come off, when to come off and let the other lads play there was no social ladder or anything like that. The way he looked after the other lads was amazing."
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Much like Brian Bell at Tyneside Pumas, Steven noticed a mental side to Rigg's game - at just 9-years-old - that made him standout amongst his peers.
"Chrissy has this thing in him which is almost like an iron spine where he’s never going to get beat," Richardson said. "He’s got to win and you could see that from day one. He’s got the skill, the technical ability and fitness, determination. He’s never going to get beat and wants to win. He’s not going to stop until he’s scored as many goals as he can. If it’s 15-0 or 16-0, he’s just not going to stop.
"You could definitely see it. I’m going to call it his ‘second coming’ after his first game of Futsal. After that, there was just no stopping him. He was just bouncing round everywhere. We need someone to tackle – Chrissy is tackling. We need someone to score – Chrissy is scoring.
"Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to belittle the other lads who played, there’s Felix Scott who is still at Sunderland, Ben Hewitson was at Sunderland until recently, my son Harry Richardson had trials at Sunderland. Bailey Hall who was at Sunderland and has now signed for Liverpool, he played. Mark Foster, he was at Sunderland.
"It was an awesome Fustal team, they went unbeaten for three or four years. He just came in and took them to the next level. He was like the dad of the team alongside my son, who was the one who brought them together. Chrissy got the trophy and he had it in his hands.
"I think he’s kept it in his room ever since. You could see right away he could go to the very top. The standard was a hell of a standard, they played against some of the best teams in the whole of the UK, including academy teams as well. We beat them all. It’s outstanding what he did."
Rigg's foundations were well built in South Tyneside, but his decision to choose Sunderland as the place to further his football education, remains a key part in his ascent to the Championship.
The Black Cats have placed hurdles in his way, challenging him at the right time and playing him a number of age groups above himself, but it was only a matter of time until he forced his way into the first-team set-up.
The youngster helped the Wearsiders win the Premier League Floodlit Cup, scoring a beauty of a free-kick as Sunderland U15s saw off Crystal Palace in the final. He'd go on to play for England at youth level and impress for both the Under-18s and Under-21s while training with the Black Cats first-team.
On the fringes this season having broken through last year, an injury on international duty with England hampered his progress at the beginning of the year. After returning to full fitness at the turn of the year, Rigg dropped down to Under-18s by his own volition, to help Sunderland reach the last-16 of the FA Youth Cup.
Using the Under-21s and FA Youth Cup as a route to regain his fitness, it wasn't long before Rigg was back in first-team contention, not deterred by his injury and intent on picking up where he left off.
Mike Dodds' return to the dugout as interim head coach, a further boost for the young midfielder, thrown into the deep end once again. Rigg impressed Dodds in first-team training and was handed his first start for Sunderland against then Championship leaders Leicester City.
"I really liked his performance," Dodds said in the aftermath of the defeat to the Foxes. "I felt he was really selfless in terms of the out of possession stuff. They tweaked one or two things which we didn't expect. I felt Riggy adapted to it really well.
"I'll be honest the plan was to get an hour out of him. I knew he'd go to the well. I knew he would give us absolutely everything which is why I knew it would be a good game for him, because we needed everyone to empty the tank.
"I just felt in the second-half he was so effective, I left him on for as long as I possibly could. Taking in to account he's a first-year scholar. People should be excited by Riggy. I'm excited to work with him over the next few years. I think he's potentially a wonderful talent."
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Having played the majority of his youth career as an attacking midfielder or a number ten, it came as a surprise to see Rigg utilised off the right-hand side of Sunderland's front three against Leicester. A position he's now played in a number of times for Dodds.
"I don't see that as his position, I don't," Dodds told We Are Sunderland when asked what the future looks like for Rigg in red and white for the remainder of this season. "It's really interesting the young player dynamic, because you would find that goalkeepers don't get their debuts until later on because of the position they're in.
"Centre-halves don't normally get debuts until later on, midfield players sometimes, you normally find debuts are wide players because - I'm generalising here because I don't know the facts and figures - wide players or outside of the pitch would see more debuts because they're less pressurised areas of the pitch.
"I think as a 16-year-old to play Riggy in the middle of the pitch, is a lack of care for him and his development. I think him playing out wide and rolling inside is a perfect balance between trying to find him the ball. Trying to get him to show everyone what he can do, but also, not put him right in the melting pot if that makes sense. If you go through a lot of the England team, where do they make their debuts? A lot of the debuts are outside of that cauldron.
"I think eventually, he'll be a midfield player. He'll naturally evolve into that, but at the moment for his development, I think we're doing the right thing as a football club in terms of giving him the game time he deserves, but also managing where he plays on the pitch and adapting the team slightly to try and help him show us what he can do.
"I think I got asked after the Bristol City game [0-0 draw] around some of the young players. I will, in this spell or whether I go somewhere else, I will never shy away from playing young players because that's my background. I gave Riggy his league debut against Leicester. I'm not saying some managers wouldn't do that, but to play a first year scholar against a Premier League team [Leicester] and then to play him again against Southampton, highlights how much trust I have in him.
"That's not about me, the point I'm trying to make is he's earned that trust with me, he's earned that trust with the players. What I think is a really interesting dynamic, is you name Riggy in the team and no one is going 'oof'. They trust him and that's a lot of credit that he deserves. Our responsibility is to keep him grounded. Our responsibility as the football club is to keep him on the path that he's on. If he does that, he gives himself a real opportunity."
The message is clear. To reach the top he'll have to remain humble. While it's impossible to predict the future, as Bell and Richardson rightly point out, the 16-year-old has all the right tools to play at the very highest level.
Having coached the likes of Jude Bellingham - who Dodds admits is in a stratosphere of his own - having the right mentality can get you a long way.
"I think it plays a huge part," Dodds told We Are Sunderland when we asked about the mental side of the game. "The standard of the Championship is so high that you can’t afford not to stay focused. As soon as you take your eye off the ball you see performances start to dip. The reality is the Premier League is a completely different stratosphere again.
"The ones that play at that level, they all have one common denominator which is just sheer professionalism. I’m yet to see someone that plays at the very highest level and not have a mindset that is something you can’t explain, in terms of every single day is important. If we want to get to the Premier League, that’s the mindset that we have to have.
"If the individuals want to get to the Premier League, that’s the mindset they’ve got to have. People like Chris Rigg, Matty Young, whoever else, Tommy Watson or any of the lads in the first-team at the moment; Jobe, Dan Neil, Trai Hume. Whoever they are, if they have anything other than 100 per cent focus they won’t achieve what they want to achieve. I’m yet to see a footballer play at the very highest level that hasn’t got that mindset."
For some, that mentality is ingrained into them for a young age. Some people believe you're born with it, while others believe it can be taught. Dodds believes developing that steeliness - which, in Rigg's case has been evident from an early age - can help both Sunderland and their rising stars get to where they want to be.
"I think it can be developed," Dodds said. "It’s the same notion that you can also develop bad habits. I don’t think bad habits are something you’re born with, the same for good habits. I do think they’re developed. I do think there are unique footballers that, for whatever reason, and it’s far beyond anything in this room, parenting maybe, but it’s far beyond football.
"I do think there are some unique individuals where you can throw anything at them and zero phases them. For a Chris Rigg in particular, for him to play in the games that I’ve played him in, shows that he has a certain mindset. I think the important thing, my role and the club’s role is to keep him hungry and humble. I don’t see any reason why that won’t happen, but you can’t predict the future.
"That’s why I’m always a little bit balanced around the Chris Rigg stuff. I’ve worked with players previously that have gone on and done unbelievable things and if you’d have said to me at 15 would they do it? I probably would have laughed at you and said to relax.
"But I’ve also had boys who are 15, 16 and thought they would be tops and they just fall off a cliff. That’s why I’m balance with it because I’ve seen both sides."
Rigg's recent displays with England U17s saw him continue his impressive vein of form, captaining Greg Lincoln's Young Three Lions to wins against Northern Ireland and Hungary, with a goal and two assists in those games. A red card against France in a 2-1 defeat a reminder how close to the edge he plays.
Sunderland are right to tread cautiously with Rigg - who's yet to sign a professional contract with the club given he's not 17 until June and has plenty of interest from elsewhere. Keen to keep him grounded and not to put him on pedestal. It's hard not to get carried away after starts at Elland Road - a sign of the club's faith in him, his ability and potential for the future - and recent steady displays against Cardiff City and West Brom.
"I didn't think it was his best performance tonight if I'm honest with you," Dodds told We Are Sunderland after the draw with Daniel Farke's side. "I felt there was an opportunity where he should have slipped Timmy in, but that's me being ultra critical.
"Riggy wants to play at the highest level, so he'll want me to be quite tough with him. I think that's a big moment in the game and they're the moments that we set up for and I think if he slides Timmy in, the result can be completely different.
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"I do think there's still a youthness in his play, which will only get better. His decision making will only get better. One thing I will say about Riggy, he's a first-year scholar and I've just played him at Elland Road.
"You've got Jobe who played alongside him as a second-year scholar and I said this at Cardiff, we've got two youth team players on the pitch. They execute the game plan to a tee and just do exactly what you ask. If we can refine both of them, in particular Riggy with all the other bits, we've got two wonderful players on our hands."
Chris Rigg. One of the rising stars in the English game.
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