Ten-year-old Kalonji Lazare has been in on trial with Premier League side Crystal Palace, after impressing at our trial in December.

The young holding midfielder attended our event at QPR’s training ground a few days before Christmas and did enough to catch the eye of one of the scouts – and soon got a phone call with his invitation to a trial.

Little more than a week after we saw him, Kalonji was training with other hopeful trialists at Crystal Palace’s training ground in South East London.

Kalonji’s Dad, Darren, explained: “He went in for a showcase game on 29th December and played with other boys they’d invited in for a trial too.

“He really enjoyed it and obviously training at a professional club academy is a great experience for him, just to see the standard if nothing else – obviously it’s very high.”

Darren added: “He was a bit shy at the start and it was difficult to get involved - I think it took him a bit of time to get settled in but he definitely played better in the second half of the session, once he’d got to know everyone a bit.”

Kalonji, who currently stands at 4foot 5’, also had a six-week-trial with Tottenham Hotspur in September last year and currently plays for his local Sunday side Ruislip Rangers, who finished runners-up in their league last season.

The scout who saw Kalonji at our trial, Jamahl, describes him as a “tenacious player with a strong winning mentality.”

He said: “Kalonji is very raw but he has the talent. At the initial trial I saw him at, he put himself about and he looked like a tenacious player with a strong winning mentality.

“I wanted to see him in a pro environment so we offered him the chance to come in so that we could have a closer look.”

The UK Football Trial last month was Kalonji’s first, but Darren says they both thoroughly enjoyed it and are already looking at coming back again later this year.

“The whole experience was excellent,” said Darren, “It’s a great way to showcase your ability to scouts and the coaching was excellent – it’s nice because he’ll actually listen to coaches advice, he just ignores mine!”

He added: “One of the best things for us was the feedback the coaches gave him, he’s found it very useful and they were able to assess his game and identify his strengths and weaknesses.

“We’d love to come back later this year, once he can have a bit of time to work on the coaches advice, it was very enjoyable.”