Anybody have a promising football career or played professionally?

Hi ladies and gents

I am interested to know if anybody on the forum has played football at a proffesional or a high level. If so what has been you story and how far have/did you go?  My story was that as a young lad in Sydney i played in the super youth league the highest youth league in the state for a club calle Marconi. In 2001 when I was 17 the club was invited to participate in the Viareggio youth tournament in Cenaia Italy  where a number of European clubs sent their youth teams. We were drawn in the group with Udinese and Torino and Manchester United. I remember we drew against Udinese and Manchester but lost 2-0 to Torino. I found the tournament program and the match program against Man Utd as I was cleaning out some old draws no notable names on Man Utd's squad barring Kieron Richardson. Who was the outstanding player and the scorer of Man Utd's goal, he was a gun player definetly the toughest I ever played against.

Anyways at the tournament I was scouted by german side Wolfsburg and offered a 4 week trial. Sadly my lack of pace as a centre back was my downfall in Wolfsburg's coaching staff eyes. However the club did have contacts elsewhere and I was offered to second division Karlshrue. Everything was going swimmingly well I was in the third week of my trial and was days away from signing a proffesional contract. However at training in a cold blooded challenge I was left with a broken fibula and tibia and extensive ligament damage that required two plates in my ankle. Naturally I was given all the immediate treatment by the club but was "pushed" away from the prospect of full rehab as i had not officially signed with the club.

This meant no football for 4 months and I eventually gave up as I was in the final year of high school and decided that university will take precedence over football. So I gave it up and played muck around low level sunday park footy and indoor with mates. I still sit back on most days and ponder what could have been.

Anybody have a similar story or experience please do share knowing will be off some comfort to me.

I was a talented young footballer with the world at his feet, but alas it was all cruelly taken away from me when I discovered Lager and loose women!

Honest!

well i think you probably speak for many young lads out there

heheh loose women got to love them

Not really. I think I was naturally better than most and still am but now at 20 years old it's all a bit too late. It was my confidence which was my downfall. I never had good confidence and this always made me play unnaturally.

When I'm confident in myself, I think I'm pretty good. I'm a lot more confident in myself now, and once someone at powerleague called me twinkle toes after the game after I impressed against them.

However, now I am learning a new sport and that is boxing. It's more fun to take part in, it will hurt a lot more and there is so much more to it than learning football. No I'm not thinking about being a pro boxer, not going to happen but it is fun knowing the potential in the sport.. but you must be dedicated to it. You can't say to a mate, you wana go to the park for a game of boxing.

Back to the football side of things, I've known some people who were absolutely wicked at football and I thought that they were so good that they had a potential pro career in the sport. But when these people got older they turned their heads facing towards beer, drugs and women - these three are the biggest career destroyers!

I am still playin youth football, was selected for northern ireland under 15 squad to play in tri nations againts wales and republic of ireland.

we actualy played a warm up game for the tournamet againts  liverpool youth team, think it was under 16's at melwood..


few scouts looking at me , but no offers of trials yet

wow thats big lad stick in there I was in the 25 man squad selected for Australia U/17 supposed to go to the youth WC but sh*t happened

I was offered trials at Wrexham as a keeper but I had no means of getting there and back at that age. Still am a good keeper but it's all a bit too late now.

I played for an all ireland team against the rest of the world... twice

i am not saying i was a great football player but i could have a breakthrough with valrenga, but when i was around 17 i discovered hasjish and beer. so dont know what would have happend.

At 11 I went to Colchester United and played there for a fair while, had trials at Watford (got in but decided against it), Chelsea (i was misguided haha, it was when they were sh*t though), West Ham and a fair few other london or local clubs but for a number of reasons it never worked out. Im an army brat so constantly moving around would have meant i never would have got a foot in anyway. Now i still play a bit but I discovered I have a talent for rugby and enjoy playing that alot.

I was taken on by Pompey at the age of 7  but moved back to liverpool (briefly) when i was 8. So after we returned to the isle of wight i was offered my place back at Pompey (age 9), i then broke my leg but after my leg healed i had a trial at Birmingham and Bournemouth; i chose Bournemouth but the youth team coach then stood down and everyone had to re-trial but at the time of the 2nd round of trials my step sister unfortunatly passed away due to a terrible illness (age 11) and i could'nt keep my focus so i had a break from football for a few months. When i was back to playing football i was back at Portsmouth until (and this is the best part) - age 15, i was at the Liverpool Academy (no lie, it is 100% true) but i then had a serious injury to which i ruptured my cruciate ligament and tore my hamstring so i was not able to stay there because of the length of time i was going to be out for and my parents did'nt want to stay in Liverpool if i was not playing. So now i am trying to sweet talk my way back into Portsmouth.

Wow KK that is some story mate way more tragic then mine. I am amazed that you were able to break the psychological barrier each time and come back that would have taken some strength. Good luck lad hope Pompey works out for you.

Ive played for Liverpool and England many times......


and then i turn off the play station  :

I was taken on by Pompey at the age of 7  but moved back to liverpool (briefly) when I was 8. So after we returned to the isle of wight I was offered my place back at Pompey (age 9), I then broke my leg but after my leg healed I had a trial at Birmingham and Bournemouth; I chose Bournemouth but the youth team coach then stood down and everyone had to re-trial but at the time of the 2nd round of trials my step sister unfortunatly passed away due to a terrible illness (age 11) and I could'nt keep my focus so I had a break from football for a few months. When I was back to playing football I was back at Portsmouth until (and this is the best part) - age 15, I was at the Liverpool Academy (no lie, it is 100% true) but I then had a serious injury to which I ruptured my cruciate ligament and tore my hamstring so I was not able to stay there because of the length of time I was going to be out for and my parents did'nt want to stay in Liverpool if I was not playing. So now I am trying to sweet talk my way back into Portsmouth.

Bloody hell that just unlucky so it is, good luck with pompey

Ya 7-KK-7 good luck with pompey,hope everything works out for you.

To be honest no, I was in the school chess team though.

I was part of a team that did not lose a game. I played RB or CB, mind you this was about 15yrs ago! But we won Cup!! 

Incidently, my nephew, who was a top striker has been signed by Southampton as a GK! He's only 8yo!

I am still playin youth football, was selected for northern ireland under 15 squad to play in tri nations againts wales and republic of ireland.

we actualy played a warm up game for the tournamet againts  liverpool youth team, think it was under 16's at melwood..


few scouts looking at me , but no offers of trials yet

Are you in the same NI team as Conor McCloskey?

The Isle of Wight is'nt actually that bad for talent, in my year at school there are a few at teams such as Saints, Pompey, Bournemouth and TNS.

my mate player for liverpool reserves in the eighties,
he used to clean hansens, neils, daggers boots
he only dropped out because of bad injuries he has some great stories
he said neil was the only one who showed the rezzies some respect

by the way, i have dribbled round him a bit, he didnt like it but he was a good player as was i but i only played for the quiet man

Are you in the same NI team as Conor McCloskey?

no dont know him

Had a trial in the old NSL competition (now called the A-League) with Marconi and Parramatta. This was in 2004 when i was 12. I got signed by Parramatta who said they would look to get me trials in Germany and Brazil but the very next year the NSL was abolished and the A-League came in. Players got laid off and about 4 weeks away from flying to Germany they pulled the plug.

Was offered to stay on with them afterwards but it was no better than playing park footy. Concentrated on my tennis after that and got as high as 2nd best under 14 players in Australia and then 3rd under 16's just 2 years ago, going to play in the U.S. with Nick Bolleterri (spelling?) but quit that because of the passion it drained out of me.

I'm only 16 too, yeesh

Now i'm doing just concentrating on school, atleast i'm trying to.

no dont know him

He might be in the age group above. He is a lad who was in my year in school but has just left to join Colchester United. He'll be playing in the London league against Arsenal, chelski etc. He plays for NI and as far as i know, he was captain at one point.

I had trials for Bootle when I was 16 and had a couple of training sessions at The Academy when I was a kid!

Nothing else though! I've never really shone so I've stuck to watching footy rather than playing!

When I was 10 I was scouted by Hibernian, a team in Edinburgh for anyone who did'nt know.
Played their for a year before Rangers snapped me up. Played well their aswell for a year also then signed for West Ham. Played their for a year before signing for Liverpool but a broken leg has forced me into early retirement. Back to school for me.

Feck me dead thats rough lad a broken leg at Liverpool too. I think if I had the chance at Liverpool and that happened I would have been suicidal.

Croucinho lad was that Parramatte Melita Eagles you played for? The old super youth league and youth football in Australia is a corrupt bowl of sh*t. I hope this A-league U/20's comp improves thing but I reckon that will go haywire pretty quickly.

I had a mate who was promising for Liverpool. Eventually it was stressed to him not to play for his school due to his commitments to the Reds.

He kept this up until the school team got to a final. Foolishly, he ended up playing as his mates all egged him on.

He ended up breaking his leg in this match. Liverpool terminated his contract.

I was a footballer in a football academy since 8 years old but I broke my leg last year so I had to end my career.I was a CM.

I was a footballer in a football academy since 8 years old but I broke my leg last year so I had to end my career.I was a CM.

Who's academy?

Croucinho lad was that Parramatte Melita Eagles you played for? The old super youth league and youth football in Australia is a corrupt bowl of sh*t. I hope this A-league U/20's comp improves thing but I reckon that will go haywire pretty quickly.

Was pretty sh*te there mate. I was young and i knew they were all dickheads but when they got me in contact with Germany i knew they werent fooling. Dortmund and Schalke were approached and they agreed after seeing a few vids of me. Was never going to Brazil, after i watched Bica v River Plate i was scared even though its in Argentina! I didnt know any different though.

A-League will never be as big as they want let alone the U/20's comp.