Sunderland forward Duncan Watmore has thanked his club after becoming only the second player in the Premier League to graduate with first-class honours.
The 21-year-old balanced training sessions with long hours of study in the evening.
Black Cats boss Sam Allardyce allowed him a day off training to collect his first in economics and business management at Newcastle University.
After the graduation ceremony, he said: "It's a really nice feeling. It has been a lot of hard work in the past three years. It is good to get it done.
"It was hard at times but the club at Sunderland were awesome with me, and so were Newcastle University. They were both always willing to compromise to help me to get through, they were massive in what I achieved and so I'm very grateful for that."
