On the week of his 18th birthday, a local teen has completed the football challenge of all football challenges with his top fan, his football-mad grandad.

Jordan, a local 18-year-old, has spent the last four years travelling to all of the clubs in England and Wales with his grandad, Andrew, in an attempt to complete the '92 challenge'.

This involves visiting all 92 clubs in the top four football leagues in England and Wales: the Premiership, the EFL Championship and the EFL Leagues 1 and 2.

The challenge itself was set up in the mid 1970s by football fans to recognise their achievements, swap knowledge and stories and generally celebrate the great game of football.

Not many people do it, and fewer actually apply to be a member of the 92 club, with around 1,500 officially registered as completing it.

Nonetheless, Jordan and his grandad have covered 21,418 miles, seen 269 goals scored and accompanied 1,623,479 fans across three seasons, and completed the challenge on Saturday 11 November, just two days before Jordan's 18th Birthday.

The duo are football crazy, and decided to take on the historic football stadium challenge in 2018 when Andrew was hit with a stroke of inspiration while at a Nottingham Forest game - Jordan's favourite team.

Andrew explained: "Jordan is a Nottingham Forest fan and I'm a Leeds United fan which provides plenty of banter in our house. 

"We started following Forest in January 2015, and went to most home games in the next four seasons. Jordan is mad on football so he was keen to get local games in when Forest were not playing at home. It was at one of these midlands away days late in 2018 at Molinoux, home stadium of the Wolves, that the thought occurred to take on the 92 challenge.

"We'd had such a great day, an adventure - last minute tickets, lunch was a Desperate Dan pie (complete with horns) at Mad O'Rourkes pie factory in Tipton, and there were some fab local pubs at the ground and we met great fans passionate about their team."

So, the duo started the challenge in early 2019 and were hooked.

Andrew said: "We didn't plan, and it was a lottery every week where we could get tickets. We didn't have an end date to work to either. Some people take this very seriously and attempt to do this in one season meaning minimum three games a most weeks, so it becomes very intensive and means that they often have to travel to games during the week. Hats off to them because this needs serious commitment!"

However, this wasn't something that Andrew and Jordan could do around work and school - which is why the 92 is often completed by older or retired football fans.

Jordan is thought to be one of the youngest to ever complete the challenge.

Andrew continued: "Prior to Covid, we were rather relaxed about the whole thing and enjoying the adventure of every weekend is an away day. Lots of travel, meeting new people - Jordan is great at this, no hesitation in asking everyone, who do you support? as his conversation starter. We took all modes of transport in all weathers, and with some locations it takes four trains to get there and four home. However, lots of changes and stopovers give more opportunities for Jordan to strike up a conversation about football and make a new friend."

When Covid came however, football was played behind closed doors meaning that the pair had to endure a 536 day hiatus between games.

Their first game back was Luton v Peterborough at Kenilworth Road in August 2021.

Andrew said: "We had missed going to football so much we threw ourselves at the challenge and stepped up the pace averaging 35-40 games per season over the seasons 21/22 and 22/23 mostly at new grounds qualifying for the 92.

As Jordan's 18th birthday was fast approaching - which took place this week, on 13 November - they decided they needed some more serious planning to arrange tickets and schedule games.

Andrew added: "So, for the last sprint of the current season, we ended up doing two matches a week, frequently doing a mid-week cup match on a Tuesday at Exeter City (stopping over, which Jordan loves and thinks that all games now should include a hotel stay!) and a League match on the Saturday at Carlisle for example."

The rules of the 92 Club are quite prescriptive, so only attendance at a first team men's match in an accredited league or competition held at the current registered home stadium in the year you apply for membership qualifies.

This meant that some of the matches that the pair watched did not qualify. Brentford moving to a new stadium, for example, meant that they had to attend a game at the new ground. In the time that it has taken them to complete the challenge, four clubs dropped out of the league meaning that they also didn't count. 

Despite these challenges and minor setbacks though, the duo overcame the odds and sat, stood, clapped and supported their way to victory, becoming one of the select football fans to complete the challenge - but with Jordan being one of the youngest to do so!

Andrew said: "We are registered members at all the clubs we have visited. Some clubs we have really struggled for tickets though. Bournemouth, the last club, was a real challenge, but once we connected with the senior team there and they understood what we were doing they really came through for us and we enjoyed a fantastic last game on Saturday evening watching Bournemouth beat Newcastle United 2-0 in a pulsating game. 

"Jordan always wants a picture with the mascot, and there some great mascots around the country: love Hang-us the Monkey at Hartlepool, Billy Brewer at Burton Albion and Captain Cod at Fleetwood. Jordan also collects programmes and has a large collection, and he tries for as many player autographs as possible which see's him hovering around the players entrance.

"We also love football food, particularly the local variations of pies, so we do rank these and we have tried the famous 'Wigan Kebab' at few north west grounds."

Jordan loves all things football and to date has attended 174 matches, witnessing 495 goals and with an aggregate attendance approaching 3.8 million.

One of these games was El classico in 2017, Barcelona v Real Madrid featuring Messi and Ronaldo which remains their biggest attended game yet at 89,514.

Andrew laughed: "This is where Jordan would like to go next – touring Europe's major leagues, though we get the same amount of fun out of seeing a great local game such as we did recently attending Sheffield Fc v Pontefract Collieries in the northern premier league – Sheffield FC being the oldest club in the world, 1857.

"It's been a worthwhile challenge and we have met lots of great people, attended super clubs at the heart of their communities and we watched the glorious game in all weathers from snow storms on the M62 to heat waves on the south coast.

"We honestly would do all over again it was that much fun."

Huge congratulations to Andrew and Jordan - and proud Grandma, Linda, who hopes to see them more now that their weekends are free - and happy birthday Jordan!

Let us know about your own good news, upcoming challenges or recent achievements by emailing [email protected].

We look forward to hearing from you.