Plymouth Argyle's loan punt on Chelsea youngster ignited 20-year career | OneFootball

A 17-year-old Scott Sinclair announced himself to the football world in 2007, with perhaps the greatest FA Cup goal ever scored in a Plymouth shirt.

Having played for four former European Cup winners in the shape of Chelsea, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Celtic, Somerset-born Scott Sinclair returned to his boyhood club, Bristol Rovers, among the most storied footballers this side of the River Avon.

At 35-years-old, Sinclair is winding down a playing career that, despite many feeling he perhaps possessed the potential to go even higher, would be the envy of 99% of current pros.

The Gas provided the winger with his first professional appearance just over 20 years ago, an injury-time cameo on Boxing Day 2004.

However, while the records rightly show that Sinclair's career is currently being bookended in blue and white, supporters of South West rivals Plymouth Argyle may argue that it was his temporary spell in Devon that truly ignited the professional flame of this oh-so formidable athlete.

Scott Sinclair, one of many wonderkids who couldn't break into Mourinho's Chelsea

Having made his aforementioned Pirates debut aged just 15, Sinclair was a known quantity among Premier League scouts, and amid concrete interest, an understandably starry-eyed Sinclair headed to the then-Champions of England, Chelsea, in June 2005.

"I want to thank Rovers who have been so good to me and understood that this was an opportunity I couldn't turn down." the prodigious young winger told the Evening Post. "Chelsea's set-up is incredible, and I didn't need much persuading to sign."

First-team minutes were unsurprisingly impossible to come across for the now-16 year old, as José Mourinho's Blues romped to their second successive league title.

Sinclair would impress regardless, scoring 15 goals in 22 appearances for a Chelsea U18 side that included Ryan Bertrand and Michael Mancienne. With the unusual combination of irreplicable pace, both with and without the ball, and the end product to match, he had quickly established himself as the club's most exciting teenage talent.

Unfortunately, despite doing all he could from his end, Sinclair happened to be part of a side that, largely due to their unrivaled success across the two-year period, had allowed just nine first-team minutes to U20s all season.

By January 2007, the boy from Bath, now almost 18, had still yet to appear for the club, and after a seemingly hopeful double-header of cup fixtures against fourth-tier pair Macclesfield Town and Wycombe Wanderers garnered just one minute of action, it was apparent to all parties that Sinclair needed to be sent on loan.

Scott Sinclair's loan move to Plymouth Argyle

It was at this point that Sinclair's connection to Bristol Rovers would seemingly once again influence his career path.

Former Pirates player-manager Ian Holloway, who was now in the midst of steering Plymouth to a comfortable mid-table finish in England's second-tier, had been keeping tabs on the young forward since leaving his post on Gloucester Road six-years prior.

"He's someone I knew and trained when he was 10 years old," Holloway explained. "We've been monitoring his career for the last seven or eight years."

Knowing the full-extent of Sinclair's supreme potential, when it became apparent that a loan was on the cards, 'Olly made absolutely sure he would the one to acquire his temporary services.

"Chelsea have let us borrow him now they are out of the FA Youth Cup. He's a great lad, with a good family, and gives me more options."

Holloway would waste no time in introducing his west-country protégé, introducing the 17-year-old as a 76th minute substitute during a win against Coventry City just five days after arrival, more than trebling his total career minutes.

But while this fairly forgettable cameo didn't necessarily capture the imagination of the Home Park faithful, it would be his second appearance for the club that would make the country's entire football-watching population stand to attention.

On January 27th, Plymouth traveled to Barnet with hopes of reaching the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time since 1988.

Sinclair started on the bench once more, though was brought in on the hour mark with hopes of influencing a scoreline which remained at 0-0.

After a Hasney Aljofree penalty put the Pilgrims in the lead, with seven minutes left of regular time, Sinclair picked up the ball in his own half and proceeded to sprint the best part of 80 yards past a helpless Barnet back-line.

Barnet manager Paul Fairclough conceded that the goal was 'Stunning, magnificent.', while Holloway described it as 'the best goal I've ever seen'. High-praise for what was Sinclair's first ever professional strike.

The now-beloved loanee would score again in the next round, a delightfully placed header that once again doubled Plymouth's lead as they beat Derby on their way to an FA Cup final for just the second time in the club's history.

Sinclair would continue to shine in the Championship, scoring a solo goal versus Crystal Palace that was perhaps as good, if not better, than his first. The talents and raw athleticism of Sinclair was an obvious treat to all on the Devonshire coast, who, along with their manager, were ambitiously praying that Chelsea would let them keep him.

“When they’re buying 30-year-old players for £30m sometimes you get blocked up, so hopefully people like ourselves can nick them, borrow them and help them along in their career,” explained Holloway, who, upon play-off contention becoming mathematically impossible, would allow Sinclair to return to Chelsea, just in time for him to make his maiden Premier League appearances, against Arsenal and Manchester United respectively, in May 2007.

Scott Sinclair, 600 appearances and counting

Since announcing himself in green all those years ago, Scott Sinclair has gone on to secure two Championship promotions, over a century of Premier League appearances, a Scottish Footballer of the year award and eight goals in the UEFA Champions League, to name just a few of his many achievements in the game.

While only Sinclair knows exactly how long his career may continue, he can be safe in the knowledge that, when it comes to footballers emanating from England's South West, most will agree that 'Sincs' is a living legend.