AS an England international and Premier League favourite, Southampton’s giant goalkeeper Fraser Forster has the footballing world at his feet.

And the fact his glittering career began at Stocksfield has brought a £100,000 bonus for the club that nurtured his prodigious talents - with a little help from the Hexham Courant .

For under a new FIFA ruling, Stocksfield FC are entitled to a cut of the £10m transfer fee Southampton paid Celtic for Forster’s services.

FIFA’s solidarity payment was set up to ensure that when a player makes an international transfer, five percent of that transfer fee is set aside by the buying club to be shared by each club he was registered with between the ages of 12 and 23.

And the fact that Forster spent four seasons at Stocksfield where he made the switch from central defender to goalkeeper, brought the jackpot payout.

But to secure the cash, Stocksfield had to provide dated evidence that Fraser had served the club as a youngster, so they turned to the Hexham Courant , former coaches and ex-players for help in establishing beyond doubt the Fraser was on the books between the seasons of 1999-2000 and 2002-2003.

It took six months, but confirmation came through this week that the evidence had been accepted, and a cheque for in excess of £100,000 was on its way.

Club secretary Phil Murray said: “It was a long wait, but when the fund came through, it was completely overwhelming and we were all in utter disbelief.

”We often have fund-raisers and the most successful one has raised £1,000, so to think this 100 times as much is just staggering.

“We have had a couple of knocks over the years by losing both our senior teams in recent years, but this funding will help us continue growing our club’s junior section and help future generations enjoy football at Stocksfield for many years to come.

“At this stage, it’s quite overwhelming and we will have to have a long think about how we best use this money, but it will provide a huge benefit for our area, not just football but rugby, cricket and running as well.”

Having started out at Stocksfield at U7 level but not playing league football until he was 11, Fraser went on to catch the eye of Newcastle United and signed a professional contract in 2008.

However, he was unable to break through to the first team at St James’s Park, despite impressing in loan spells at Norwich City and Celtic.

He made the move to the Scottish side permanent in 2012, and his impressive displays for the Glasgow side, including a man of the match display in the Champions League against Lionel Messi’s Barcelona, helped earn him an international call-up.

He made his England debut in a friendly at Wembley against Chile in 2013.

He continued to impress and earned a dream move to the Premier League with Southampton for £10m in 2014, although has missed all of this season through injury.

Having followed his career closely, Stocksfield are immensely proud of the giant goalkeeper’s progress and are hopeful the £100,000 cash injection will continue to inspire their upcoming youngsters.

Mr Murray said: “We have a real ambassador in Fraser being a professional, and the Tyne Valley area in general has a good track record of producing good goalkeepers.

“It is great to be able to show to the children and parents that you don’t have to play inner city football to make it pro, as Fraser was at his rural team, enjoying himself and working hard until he was about 15.

“We are delighted Fraser enjoyed playing here at Stocksfield and he has been able to travel the world playing football, and we are immensely proud that he has helped us out along the way.

“Hopefully, he feels we did play a huge role in his development, and he is proud of the help we provided.”

Playing a huge role in helping prove Fraser was at Stocksfield was former team manager Nick Jones, who had kept a box full of player registrations and match reports he had written at the time.

His son Iain was close friends with Fraser and they were always playing football and cricket together.

Mr Jones said: “My son, Fraser and another lad James Prince would always be out playing sport together and they just loved playing with their mates.

“Fraser, while starting out as a central defender, always liked playing in goal and he was always kept very busy as we weren’t a very strong team and a bit of a small squad!

“Fraser had a great time at Stocksfield, and it’s nice that the club are benefiting still from his spell here.”

david.coulter@hexham-courant.co.uk