FROM Valley Parade to the San Siro via Ibrox and Old Trafford – it’s some career route map for one Bradford City season-ticket holder.

When David Garth first accepted a commercial job with the Bantams, he could never have imagined it would lead to working with some of the biggest clubs in the world.

Inter Milan will be the next giant name on the CV when he becomes their venue commercial director in March, rejoining former Manchester United chief operations officer Mike Bolingbroke in Italy.

Garth has worked for United for the last six years in their corporate department. He had spent the previous five in Scotland, doing a similar role at Rangers.

He has learned plenty along the way – but it’s those first couple of years at Valley Parade that provided an invaluable grounding.

Garth worked in the Telegraph & Argus sales department when he got the call from City in 2001.

Barry Pierpoint, who he still keeps in touch with, and Geoffrey Richmond offered him a chance as commercial sales executive.

The club had just dropped out of the Premier League and it seemed the dream opportunity for a passionate fan. What nobody knew was that administration was just around the corner.

Garth recalled: “I took £30,000 on my first day just cold-calling round companies. You had to learn on your feet – there was no induction or anything.

“It was a great job and I built up a lot of relationships in that first year. But then the club went into administration for the first time and everything changed.

“We were trying to generate money to keep the club afloat. It was a horrible, horrible time.

“Being a fan it was a labour of love but it was very hard. I was in my mid-20s, I’d just bought my first house and Shaun Harvey had warned us that the administrators would be chopping jobs.

“It was a bit of a double whammy because this was my livelihood but also my club. We didn’t even know if we were going to exist for the next season.

“We were asking sponsors to renew deals and nobody was sure if we’d still be kicking a ball in August. If I was a businessman, I wouldn’t have touched it with a bargepole but we somehow got through it.”

Garth’s efforts during such an uncertain period caught the eye of Rangers owner David Murray. Stuart McCall also put in a good word and he was soon heading north of the border.

The difference was eye-watering.

“I started in the final week of the season,” he added. “We had to out-score Celtic to win the league – and won 6-1 with a penalty in injury time to do it.

“A week later we won the Scottish Cup to do the double. It was some start.

“My time up there was out of this world. Bradford gave me a great grounding working in football and Rangers took it to another level on the corporate and commercial side.

“They are a fantastic club and it’s so sad to see them in a shambles. I left in 2008 just after they’d been to the UEFA Cup final – it’s a crying shame the position they are in now.”

Old Trafford beckoned, where United had recently increased the size of the stadium and doubled the number of corporate seats.

Garth said: “We were on the cusp of a recession and my sales team travelled from the north of Scotland to the bottom tip of England punting for business.

“But we managed to turn it round and for the last three years, the stadium has been completely sold out in the corporate areas.

“I’ve done so many different things across the club and it’s been a fantastic journey. But Inter Milan is a beast of a job – that was the pull of it.”

Inter have recently been taken over by Indonesian billionaire Erick Thohir, who wants to project the club better worldwide.

“Italian football is a bit like England before the Premier League,” said Garth. “They’ve never really had to go out and pro-actively sell the game beyond their country.

“The new owner is a very shrewd businessman and wants to see what the club are capable of. In effect, it’s a start-up business with 108 years of history.”

But Garth’s links with his City remain as strong as ever, even if the move abroad might mean giving up his season-ticket.

“I sit watching the game at Old Trafford with the T&A blog open on my phone (I thought Simon would shoehorn that quote in – sports ed),” laughed the 38-year-old. “That’s not going to change.

“My dream, though it’s probably my heart talking rather than my head, is to be running Bradford City one day. That would be magic.”