At Trinity College Dublin, week 0 of every academic year is designated Freshers’ Week. During this week, different clubs and societies would set up booths to showcase their activities and recruit interested students, especially freshmen. It was during my Freshers’ Week when I spotted the men’s football booth and signed up to trial for the team.
At that point, I knew that there was a very slim chance of me making it into the college team as I expected them to play high quality football, considering that I was in Europe after all. Nonetheless, not many can say that they have played football in Europe and I was very keen to play against better players.
On the day of the trial, I could hardly contain my excitement as I reported to the changing room beside College Park. There were many trialists and we were all allocated different time slots on different days. As we waited for the head coach’s arrival, I looked around and observed that there was a good mix of nationalities in the changing room.
It was a surreal moment as it was my first overseas football trial. Ever since I started watching football at the age of 13, I have always imagined a different life in an alternate dimension. In this version of reality, I am a sublime youth football player who trialed for Arsenal, impressed Arsene Wenger, got signed as an Academy player, went on to make my debut for the first team in the Premier League and ended my one-club career as a legend. Even though I was nowhere near achieving this life, the trial at TCD was the closest I could get. I was determined to get the most out of the trial by not worrying about whether I would be accepted or not. I only wanted to get out there and enjoy playing football.
The head coach entered with a duffel bag full of kits and socks, and went on to split us into two teams according to the positions that we played. We strutted out of the changing room and onto College Park. It was quite a unique sight as The Pavilion Bar was located above the changing rooms and there were groups of students hanging out outside the pub at mid-day. The yellow building on the left edge of the picture houses The Pavilion Bar.
We did some basic drills under the keen eyes and supervision of the head coach and assistant coach. It was nothing fancy, just a couple of manageable passing and dribbling drills. Following which, we played an 11-a-side match, which was arguably the main event of the trial.
As there were more than 22 trialists, several players from each team had to sit on the bench and wait to be substituted at half-time. I only played one half as a left back. As expected, there were many amazing players who could dribble their way out of sticky situation, ping cross-field passes and get into good attacking positions to score goals. I would not be surprised if some of them were current or ex-youth team players. It was challenging for me to defend against some of these players. They showed immense physicality as they tried to outmuscle one another, and they were very fit as they kept on running without breaking a sweat.
It was a very memorable trial because surprisingly I scored a goal! It was definitely a fluke goal, as I took up an attacking position at the left wing, whipped in a cross into the penalty box with my right foot, somehow everyone misses the ball and it ends up at the back of the net. Well, a goal is still a goal!
At the end of the trial, the head coach selected a couple of players and told them to stay back, while the rest were dismissed. If you guessed that I was not selected, then you are absolutely right! I was not surprised because I knew that my standards were not good enough. Regardless, I was happy to have made it thus far, considering that I did not have any proper football training until I was 17.
I was not ready to give up yet, though. I approached the assistant coach and asked him whether I could still join the team for training. Fortunately, he was kind enough to accede to my request. It did not matter to me whether I would be selected to take part in competitions, I simply wanted to train regularly and continue playing football while I was overseas. I thought regular training sessions would also be beneficial to maintain my fitness and help me improve as a player over time.
At this point, I am sorry to disappoint but there was no fairytale ending. I did not climb up the ranks to become a regular starter in the first team. 😅
Here’s what happened instead.
As the college took part in several competitions simultaneously, the football club was split into the main team and second team. After the trial, I attended a couple more training sessions with the second team, which were mainly conditioning for the players on pre-season. About half the time, we were sent on runs and sprints around the field. I was quite unfit and could barely catch up to the rest of the team. Most of these sessions were held during the day, thus I had to choose between football and attending class. I was averse towards skipping classes on a regular basis, after all tuition fees were not cheap and lectures were not recorded. Hence, after a few weeks, I decided to stop training with the college team.
The story continues, so stay tuned for Part 2!
Kaiser 