12-year-old Rome Grant was scouted from our West London trial by Birmingham City and Reading. After being scouted, he was invited to trial for Reading's academy and has also featured in games for them.

Speaking with Rome's father Andrew, he gave us some insight into his son's footballing history, telling us: "When he was nine Rome was at Barnet's academy for a year before he attended your trials so he had previous club experience."

Moving on from this, Andrew also told us why he chose to attend one of our events even though Rome has had opportunities in the past, explaining: "When he was released from Barnet I asked him what he wanted to do, whether that was play grassroots or push to try and play academy football again."

"He chose to give it another go so I asked around different clubs to begin with but realised we were going to have to find a different avenue. So that's we opted to attend your trial."

Commenting on his trial with our company, Andrew told us: "Rome was very happy with the UK Football Trials event, it was brilliant. He felt very comfortable playing in front of the scouts and it clearly paid off with him getting scouted on his first try."

Speaking about the result of the trial, Andrew said: "Rome was scouted by both Birmingham and Reading. Obviously we knew that Birmingham was going to be out of the question due to distance."

"However, we then started speaking with Reading. We were unsure what was going to happen, whether it would be a trial, a trial match or whatever. He was fortunate to be invited straight in for an official academy trial!"

Going into more detail regarding Rome's trial, he told us: "The first week was tough in terms of transitioning back into an academy but it's been fantastic. He played in hist first match for the club against Wolverhampton Wanderers and technically he did not look out of place at all."

"From his first match he has kicked on and looks a different player. He went away with the club for a tournament and has consistently been playing games. He's really enjoying it." Andrew added.

UK Football Trials are delighted for Rome and hope he can continue to impress in the football world and continue to push on!