Player #959 for Aston Villa, Callum Miles Rowe played as a left back for the club in the 2020-21 season, making his sole appearance in that season’s FA Cup.

Callum was born on 2 September 1999 in Leicester and signed professional forms with Villa in July 2018 aged 18.

Rowe was promoted to the Villa Under 23 squad for the 2018-19 season under Mark Delaney before Delaney promoted Rowe to the first team squad before giving him his first team debut in the 2020-21 season aged 21 in the 1-4 FA Cup defeat to Liverpool on Friday, 8 January 2021. That would prove to be Rowe’s only first team appearance for the club.

Rowe was part of the youngest ever team to ever take the field for Villa in a professional game - aged 18.8 years on average - after the first team squad was forced into isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic which had seen a raft of players and staff testing positive for the virus in the week preceding the game.

Rowe was one of 16 debutants in the game - the most in a single game in Villa’s history and was also part of the starting XI made up of 11 debutants, the first time this had happened since Villa’s first professional fixture - also in the FA Cup - on Saturday, 13 December 1879 against Stafford Road. Rowe made his debut appearance under caretaker manager Mark Delaney after Villa boss Dean Smith was required to join the first team in isolation.

Rowe created Villa’s goal in the 41’ minute of his debut on Friday, 8 January 2021 against defending Premier League Champions Liverpool after playing a neat through ball to fellow debutant Louie Barry.

At 21, Rowe was the oldest player in Villa’s youngest ever squad but the had already lost considerable time in his nascent career due to a long term, career threatening knee injury that kept him out of the game for more than a year and that left him with doubts at one point as to whether he’d even be able to walk again. As a result Lowe’s performance on this special night when making his debut was a particularly poignant one.

Later in January 2021 Villa sent Rowe out on loan to National League North side Hereford F.C. on loan until the end of the season.

Hereford announced Rowe’s arrival saying “We’ve been looking at Callum for a while now and watched the Liverpool Cup game with interest. He had a great performance and showed his quality up against the likes of Mohamed Salah.

“He’s a player who has an eye for a pass, he’s good at one-vs-one’s and I am sure he’ll add a great deal of quality to the team. We’ve got a good relationship with Villa and we’re pleased that we’ve been able to bring him in.

“We’re going into a period of games that sees us playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, so we’re going to need a full-strength side.”

It was announced in April 2021 that Rowe would be released by the club at the end of the 2020-21 season. Rowe’s release followed a ‘technical board meeting’ on March 16 2021 between Academy Manager Mark Harrison, Dean Smith, Mark Delaney, Chief Executive Christian Purslow and Sporting Director Johan Lange against a back drop of a significant scale-up in the club’s academy operations with a view to developing a continuing flow of first team talent over the coming decade. Rowe proved a casualty of that drive but could look back on Friday, 8 January 2021 - a day that saw him become the 961st player to represent the Villa first team over 132 seasons.