Paedophile former football coach Barry Bennell created an attractive environment for young people, one of his victims has told the High Court.
The man told a judge he had stayed at Bennell’s “football-orientated” home as a boy while pursuing his dream of becoming a footballer.
He is one of eight men suing Manchester City, asserting Bennell was a scout for the club when he abused them.
City disputes the claim for damages from the men.
The man told Mr Justice Johnson that football had been his world, and his world had revolved around the coach, who is now serving a jail term after being convicted of child sex crimes.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he first met Bennell when he was about 11 or 12.
“He approached me and said he was a Manchester City scout,” the man told Mr Justice Johnson.
“He gave me a calling card.”
The man said he played for a team coached by Bennell, trained with him at City’s training ground, went to watch City games with him and stayed at Bennell’s home.
“It was something I wanted to do,” he told the judge.
“It was an environment a young person was attracted to. Everything was football-orientated.
“Football was my world and revolved around him at the time.”
IMAGE SOURCE,PAUL ELLIS/AFP/GETTYThe man added: “I wanted to be a footballer – that is what I was convinced I was going to be.”
He said Bennell’s abuse had scarred him and he had “lost his love” for football.
He told the judge: “I see the abuse as the crossroads and the crux of the matter.”
Mr Justice Johnson has heard the men, now in their 40s and 50s, were sexually and emotionally abused by Bennell in the North West of England between 1979 and 1985.
The men are claiming damages after suffering psychiatric injuries.
Six are also claiming damages for loss of potential football earnings.
Manchester City FC said Bennell was a local scout in the mid-1970s but was not a scout between 1979 and 1985.
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