11-year-old Alessandro Crivellaro was scouted from our West London event back in October 2021 by three clubs, Queens Park Rangers, Aldershot and Watford.

We caught up with Alessandro's father Alberto to find out about his son's football history, why he chose to attend our event and what has happened since being scouted.

Firstly, we asked Alberto to talk us through his son's footballing background, he explained: "Alessandro started to play at the after school football club in summer 2016. After few weeks the coach invited him to play for a local team." 

"At the beginning he was only training but from September he was actually participating in a proper football league. Then in January 2017 he joined Arsenal in the community. Unfortunately they were playing matches only once in a while so in March 2019; following advise from a friend we decided to join a more structured Saturday grassroots team called PFA United."

"Here he started to develop his technical skills and understanding of the game. Throughout the pandemic he continued to train on his own in order to be ready when everything was back to normal, in the meantime he joined Wingate & Finchley as well so he could have more playing time as they participate in a Sunday league." 

"In 2021 he won with PFA the Camden Youth Cup while Wingate & Finchley nominated him "player of the year" for the season 2020/2021." 

"At the beginning of the new season 2021/2022 we decided to move to a different grassroots level leaving the previous clubs and joining Lambeth Tigers."

With his son playing a huge amount of fixtures and performing extremely well, we were curious as to why he chose to attend one of our one day football trials, Alberto told us: "We felt that your trial would have been a great opportunity to understand what level was required for an academy player."

Alessandro received feedback on the day with three clubs interested in bringing him on trial. The first club to contact the skilful 11-year-old was Queens Park Rangers who offered him the chance to show what he could do in their Elite Development Centre.

Commenting on the process, Alberto said: "He started with the Elite Development Centre and then was invited to an eight week trial with the main academy. Alessandro enjoyed every single steps, the experience has been amazing."

When asked whether there had been any feedback from QPR regarding his performance, Alberto was extremely happy to tell us: "Yes they signed him at the end of the trial!"

As a player who was playing grassroots football, unsure of their level to signing with a Championship club's academy, we asked Alessandro for advice to other players like himself. He told us: "Believe in yourself, work hard and never give up."

UK Football Trials would like to congratulate Alessandro on a brilliant performance with ourselves and QPR. We hope he can continue to improve as a player and push on within the club.