At this time of year they are everywhere and guaranteed to attract attention- Trialist.
Yesterday at Broadwood Clyde had three on the bench with one listed among the Celtic substitutes sparking a guessing game.
Trialist turn up on a fairly regular basis at Lennoxtown, taking part in a few training sessions, hoping to be pictured with details leaked out by an ambitious agent before attempting to find a deal elsewhere.
The brilliant Celticwiki provides an extensive list of trialists with very few offered contracts or surfacing elsewhere in the game.
Among the obstacles involved with a trialist is the need for a work permit with John Harkes and Brad Friedel surfacing at Celtic before making a career for themselves in England.
Around the same time Celtic’s youth side took part in a tournament in Switzerland with two trialists in the squad. One of them was Chris Giles, son of the former Leeds midfielder John, the other was Simon Donnelly who went on to stop 10-in-a-row.
In 1999 two young Bulgarian’s appeared on trial- the other one was Milen Petkov.
Yesterday’s Celtic trialist was from North America and given a 15 minute run out against Clyde. He looked pacey and skilful but the purpose of a fortnight’s trial is to establish more than a snapshot of his ability with game time matching in with how he impresses in training sessions.
With social media capable of uncovering all sorts of little known facts there are few secrets these days. The DNA of most footballers can be found with a little digging around with most British and European players known outwith scouting databases.
Whether yesterday’s trialist goes on to become another Stan Petrov or Simon Donnelly remains to be seen, whether named or not he can always boast that he wore the hoops.
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