He might be a star on the football pitch but England international James Milner was also top of the class at school, according to his former teachers.

The Aston Villa midfielder, who was a pupil at Horsforth School for five years, is in South Africa preparing for the World Cup with his England team-mates.

The 24-year-old represented the school at cricket, football and athletics while a member of Leeds United’s youth academy, which he joined at the age of ten. He left Horsforth with 11 GCSEs after being signed by the club aged 16.

Ahead of England’s first game against the USA on Saturday, Steven Weeks, the school’s head of maths, said: “He was a very intelligent lad. He was a good mathematician and I would have loved him to have done A-Level maths.

"But Leeds United was his big passion so when it came to choosing between maths and Leeds United I could understand his choice.

“In school he was a quiet lad, he never went round with any arrogance about the fact he was signed on Leeds United’s books. He was very thoughtful and clever.”

During his time at the school, James was also a wicketkeeper and batsman for Yorkshire Schools Cricket and was Leeds Schools cross-country champion.

The school, which has one of James’ England under-21 shirts displayed in its PE department, sent him a letter of congratulations after he was named Professional Footballers’ Association Young Player of the Year.

Head of PE Paul Gray said he hoped James would send the school one of his England shirts from the World Cup.

He added: “He was a very good all rounder, a natural at any sport he tried.

“Not only was he a good sportsman but he had fantastic attitude. He was very focused, I use him now as a fantastic role model. He was very driven and dedicated but not big-headed.

"We get a lot of talented people through school but they haven’t always got the attitude to back it up. Both on and off the pitch he was very level-headed.”