13-year-old centre forward Caleb Horsley was scouted at both his first and second UK Football Trials event and has now gone on to sign for Rotherham!

Talking with Caleb’s father, he told us a little about his son’s football history, stating: “Caleb attended your trials in Manchester previously and his details were requested by both Manchester City and Birmingham City.”

“Manchester City were in contact with us and attended some of his games to see how he is progressing.”

He continued: “Caleb has also been in and out of the development centres at Derby, Nottingham Forest, Burton, Leicester, Stoke and he was training with Port Vale.”

“He has been at Mansfield for the past two seasons until he joined Rotherham this season.” He added.

Caleb’s father explained why he wanted to bring Caleb along to our events, telling us: “We opted to bring Caleb along to the UK Football Trials event to get him more exposure within the football industry, to see what level he’s at, what his game is missing, what he needs to improve, etc.”

“With the first he attended, we got the feedback we wanted, then with the second, he obviously signed for Rotherham!”

Caleb has bounced around from club to club but hasn’t given up on his dream of becoming a footballer once. His dad explained: “He’s faced a few problems in the past due to his size, but Rotherham saw past that and saw that he had a great attitude and work ethic and signed him based on that.”

“Rotherham offered Caleb a two week assessment, they train on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday, within the first week they offered him an eight week trial, and then within the first two weeks of that, they told us that they want to sign him!”

We at UK Football Trials would like to congratulate Caleb and wish him the best of luck with his future at Rotherham! It would have been easy for Caleb to give up with the many setbacks he has faced but he has displayed the perfect attitude that is needed to go far.