13-year-old Hugo Patel Thompson caught the eye of a number of scouts when he attended our five-day camp back in 2019. Additionally, he rekindled interest once again when he attended another one-day trial in February 2020.

Speaking with Hugo’s father Ian, we asked for an insight into Hugo’s footballing background, he explained: “Hugo has been playing football since he was one!”

“He joined his first team at U6 - Coastal FC where I coached the prospects team with Hugo as the key player where we developed and won many tournaments in Canada and Western US all the way down to Seattle.”

“Hugo played for Whitecaps Academy between the ages of 8-11 years old. From the age of 9 he played up a year at the age groups of U10 - U11. And played in many US tournaments - Baker Blast - Cross Fire tournaments, Skagit etc.”

“When he was 11 he traveled with a Canadian academy team and played at the Gothia Cup in Sweden getting to the last 16 and named player of the tournament for the team.”

Our camp was not the first experience of football in the UK for Hugo, Ian told us: “Between the ages of 9 to 11 we traveled back to the UK and he trained at the Wolverhampton Wanderers academy and played in a few exhibition games with their academy.”

“He also trained with Sheffield Wednesday and Fulham during these visits and again with Wolves at their academy training camp in Atlanta Georgia during the summer.”

Upon his return to Canada, Hugo remained extremely interested in playing football, Ian again elaborated: “At the U12 age group he joined the HPL (Canada’s highest youth league) Mountain FC team and was picked as a younger player to play at the U13 age group.”

“He played and won in a number of tournaments and we also traveled to San Diego to play the Surf Cup 2018 finishing 2nd.”

“During his time at Mountain he was selected for the BC Provincial team and also played at the Whitecaps Academy - before looking to play in England - his dream!”

With all this experience playing in Canada and obviously performing well, we were curious as to why Ian decided to bring Hugo along to our event. He explained: “Living in Canada and having a British passport Hugo has been traveling to the UK to play football and experience the UK style of play.”

“Because of this he decided from a young age he wanted to play pro football in UK!”

“UK Football Trials gave him the opportunity to showcase his talent directly in front of UK scouts and this has changed everything for Hugo. He wanted to come for the experience and to see where he actually stood in front of scouts that did not know him at all and he prospered brilliantly.”

After being scouted from our camp, Ian proceeded to tell us what happened from there: “At the first camp in 2019 he was scouted by Chelsea, Portsmouth, Ipswich and Tottenham!”

“I ended up speaking with the Chelsea scout for 40 minutes and to this day Carl and I are conversing as he is very interested in Hugo and sees huge potential for him.”

“Hugo was invited to visit Cobham and in July we went back as Chelsea invited him to a trial game!”

“Unfortunately he was unable to play when we arrived there due to the legalities of being a foreign player, but he met the academy director and saw the facility which was amazing!”

After unfortunately not being able to showcase his talent in a game for Chelsea, Hugo was offered the chance to train with Portsmouth! Ian explained what happened: “Portsmouth had Hugo training at their U14 academy group over 12 times now during the periods July 2019 to February 2020. If we were in the UK they would probably pick him up.” 

After a successful first stint with UK Football Trials, Ian opted to bring Hugo along to one of our one-day trials in West London and once more Hugo impressed; being scouted by Portsmouth and Chelsea as well as Luton.

As a player attending our event from overseas looking to play in the UK full time, we asked Hugo if he had any advice for players in a similar position to himself. He told us: “Don’t give up! The experience and feedback I've received is invaluable. One of the key things young players should focus on is how coachable are you and do you have the right mind set to be coached!”

UK Football Trials would like to wish Hugo the very best luck with his football and we have no doubt that with his attitude and determination he will make it in the game!