West Ham United Sign Danso on Six-Week-Trial
West Ham United have signed Kwame Danso on a six-week-trial after he impressed at our event in August. We caught up with Kwame one week into his trial to find out how he’s adapting to life at a Premier League club…
So you’re training with West Ham! How’s it going?
It’s incredible, I went to a training session at the academy on Wednesday with the u15’s and u16’s and I’ve never had training like it. We did lots of passing and possession games and at the end all the defenders were taken away to do some specialist training, working on heading and things. It was a much faster pace than I’m used to and it was harder than I expected.
Have you played in any matches for the club?
Yeah, the weekend just gone I started in a game against Southend and played about 70 minutes. We lost but it was a good experience for me to play my first ever academy game, I had to keep the ball a lot more than I’m used to for my local team and try to play good football.
So you haven’t ever done anything like this before?
No this is my first time at this standard. My parents are from Ghana but I was born and grew up in England so I’ve been playing for my school and local teams around London my whole life – what I’m doing now with West Ham is very different and fast paced.
Obviously you’re still young, but why do you think you’ve not had your break before now?
Well I’ve never really taken it seriously before. It was only about two years ago I decided that football was what I wanted to do and I started to take it seriously and train harder.
What kind of training routine do you have?
With West Ham I’m at the development centre once a week, the academy once a week and then sometimes games on weekends, but I do a lot by myself as well. Mainly things like stair running and technical work, running around cones in my garden and anything I can do alone really. I probably do that twice a week.
And what do you think you did at our trials that impressed the scouts? Was there a stand out moment for you?
Not really a standout moment, but when I played in the junior game I passed it well and was just sat at the back clearing up. I was asked to play in the senior game too with players up to 17-years-old. I tackled well, they were a lot stronger than me so I think I could work on that, but I held my own and I think that looked good for me.
So you’ve done amazingly well from our trials, what would your advice be for other players hoping to get scouted?
Train as hard as you can, be very vocal, be confident and prepare. You have to train and ready yourself before the trial.
And how was your UK Football Trials experience?
It was really good. I had a coach from Fulham’s academy who took my session and he was doing a lot of in-game scenarios, things that we could apply to games and stuff like that. I’ve never had any professional coaching before so that was great.
Finally, what’s your next step form here?
I’ve got five more weeks with West Ham so I’ll work hard and hopefully it will lead to them signing me and eventually towards a pro contract.
We also spoke to the scout who took him in from our trials, who gave his thoughts on Kwame’s performances so far and revealed what first caught his eye.
“We were looking for a centre-back anyway and then I saw this kid, 14, he was 6 foot 4’ and left footed could use his right as well.
“Left sided centre-backs are rare anyway and he ticked all the boxes for us. Technically he was good, he’s got his head screwed on, has lots about him and can put a tackle in.
“He came in with the development players and did well so he was invited back in to train with the academy and then signed on for a six-week-trial with the u15’s.
“I’m really pleased for him and we’ve all got our fingers crossed.”