15-year-old Ted Gibbons was recently approached by Championship club Sheffield United for a trial after being scouted at our events on February 20th.

A diverse footballer, who can play either as a central midfielder or right back, Ted was unfortunately released by his most recent club Lincoln City over Christmas.

After learning of not being offered a scholarship by Lincoln, Ted chose not to let this deter him from his dream and took action, looking for events where he could be scouted.

We spoke to Ted’s father Paul, who explained how he came across UK Football Trials.

“I work with a scout from Sheffield United who rang a colleague and said ‘I know someone who is looking for a trial opportunity.’ and he recommended UK Football Trials,” said Paul.

At our trial, Ted caught the eye of two scouts, both of whom took his details.

Paul explained: “On the day he was approached by the Burnley scout who asked him a few questions like where he plays, where he’s from, but we didn’t hear anything further from that. But then Sheffield United got in touch about a week later.”

Speaking about Ted’s trial at Sheffield United, Paul told us: “From what I could see and from what Ted has told me, there was a good warm up where they went through drills and things like that, and then some small size games which were fast paced, which he enjoyed.

“Afterwards, they had a 30 minute match. Ted actually played with the older group of lads and it all went quite well for him.”

Ted’s experience at Sheffield United was nothing but positive, and he spoke very highly of his time there: “The facilities at Sheffield United are very good - I was very happy with them.

“It’s a good standard, to be fair it’s a nice club with nice people. The coaches were watching the session very closely and from the warm up on they seemed to really know their stuff.”

Ted had a trial on Saturday where he played for Sheffield United against Barnsley.

Paul added: “Sheffield United were brilliant, they looked after us really well but I received an email saying he should get a scholarship somewhere but unfortunately they can’t offer one as they have too many players similar to him.

“But that’s life, that’s how it is. It’s a difficult game, especially at that age.”

We would like to wish Ted the very best and would love to see him at one of our trials again in the future.