JFA players shown a path to new opportunities

Young players at Jersey FA?s Performance Centre have more opportunities to find a pathway to professional and semi-professional football Picture: DAVID FERGUSON

JERSEY football’s link with Fulham has been well-documented and has already produced two professional footballers in Marlon Fossey and Luke Harris, with two more players in the Premier League club’s academy.

However, Brian Oliver, the football development manager at the Jersey FA, has worked hard behind the scenes to forge a potential pathway for budding stars of the future with another Premier League club.

This morning, Under-12 players representing the JFA’s Performance Centre are heading to Southampton’s state-of-the-art Staplewood Campus to play in a round-robin of matches against the club’s age-group academy sides and BRS, a Hampshire-based junior football team with close links to the Saints.

Then, on Thursday, the JFA are taking their Under-13s to do the same.

Meanwhile, a player from the JFA Performance Centre’s Under-15 squad is also at Southampton on a week’s trial.

‘We’ve got an agreement of co-operation with Southampton where we can take teams across and it gives the kids a pathway and a fantastic opportunity to experience,’ said Oliver.

‘Fulham have done so well on the back of what we are doing here, Southampton are aware of that and they want to ensure that they get the opportunity to look at our best players.

‘It’s going to be a brilliant day and it’s just really important that the players get the opportunity to get off the Island, play against players who have been selected for a [Premier League club] academy and represent Jersey.’

While in parks and playing fields across England, there are club scouts trying to sniff out the next Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling or Jude Bellingham, junior players in Jersey do not have that advantage and so they rely on the JFA to provide these opportunities for them and give them a platform to showcase their talent. On top of that, clubs in the Premier League and the English Football League are bound by maximum travel time restrictions for potential triallists, thus further disadvantaging opportunities for young players on an island 85 miles from the south English coast and accessible only by

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