Throughout the last season, a range of Tranmere Rovers Futsal players were called into England U19 Camps.
Leading the charge were our three young Lions from Tranmere Rovers: Kai Bone, Jordan Deer and Lawson McCarthy.
Lawson and Jordan have been involved in England youth since the start of the season. More recently, at just 16, Kai has impressed since slotting in for former number 1 Fermin Fernandez in net for Tranmere in the Super League. Fermin moved back to Spain in the first few months of this year. It was a coming of age for a young goalkeeper who has been patient, travelling around the country to sit on the bench for both men's and sometimes the second team.
On his first call up into the U19s environment, Kai said: “I am so proud and excited to have been given this opportunity by the club to not only start playing futsal at this level but to also become the first team keeper for Tranmere Rovers playing in the super league! The club has helped me progress so much and has also helped me get a call up to England's under 19's. As a 16 year old this is the kind of thing you only dream of when you first start playing and it's so great to see all of the fans and the academy players only a few years younger than myself supporting us in numbers every week.”
Future development regional camps beneath the national U19s squad also took place in Sheffield, with Tranmere's Danny Richman and Owen Jackson invited in these. As encouraging as it is for Tranmere's futsal development programme to have so many players involved, it's equally encouraging that the FA are putting on these events, casting the net out wide and developing young futsal players to be future internationals.
This week, Tranmere Rovers hosted Liverpool FC, the screening of an England World Cup semi final and open trials for the new season Futsal teams. A week of opportunity. Register for the trials here.