Semi-pro side Woking Football Club recently scouted 17-year–old centre forward Patrick Callaghan from Florida USA after attending one of our events back in February.

Patrick currently plays and studies at an international school here in the UK. He told us: “Back in the US I mainly played for a small grassroots club. Then my league had a big try-out to come over here and play for a pricate football school. There was about a couple of hundred kids who tried out for two positions at the school and I was lucky enough to be one to get picked."

Once in the UK, Patrick decided to attend one of our events in West London where he caught the eye of a scout from Woking. Patrick said: “I was notified by email that my details had been requested by a club, which didn’t happen the first time of attending one of your trials so when I received the email I was obviously pretty excited. Your operations manager Tom Rudd then put me into contact with the scout.”

We asked Patrick what a trial with Woking consisted of in which he explained: “The trial was really good. There was a group of us who went down and trained with Scott Harrison. It was very attack orientated, there was a lot of one on one and two on two drills involved. It was a great experience to be able to train and gain a better understanding of the semi-pro game.

“It’s definitely a high level of coaching, when we were there, they got us situated into warming up, then into a passing drill which allowed us to play creatively and link up with each other.” He added.

As well as the level of coaching, Patrick also spoke highly of the facilities and his overall experience with Woking, stating: “The facilities are great. They have mainly grass pitches that are all owned by them so it’s exclusively their team training on it, and they also have their own equipment like the goals and things.

“I was very happy with my overall experience. It was my first trial in the UK since I came over here in 2017 so it was definitely an exciting moment for me.”

Patrick has been invited back to Woking for further training but is apprehensive on what his future will consist of. He explained: “I’m not sure what my next steps are at the moment. I don’t know if I’ll continue to train with Woking or stay with Brooke House. I’m leaning more to staying at Brooke House as it’s a better situation and the training is equally as good.”

“I’m glad I went down the Woking and it’s an opportunity that I definitely wouldn’t have passed up on. With both UK Football Trials and Woking it was a great way to get my name out there and network with different clubs and scouts.”

UK Football Trials would like to wish Patrick the best of luck with his future and hopes he can continue to progress with either Woking or Brooke House depending on his decision.