Oral Tracey | Trials and no contracts

Trials generally, but even more so, football trials are innately ineffective and decidedly unscientific in depicting with an accurate degree of finality the true quality and potential of footballers.

One poignant example that aptly demonstrates the folly in the general principle of football trials is the situation of elite players entering the high-profile English Premier League. This is at the very top end of the international player scale, yet invariably, these players, even with multimillion dollar contracts routinely struggle initially with adjusting to the change in conditions, lifestyle, food, language, culture, et cetera. Rich, comfortable, experienced players worth millions of pounds on the open football market cower and struggle under the new conditions.

What if these same top players were arriving from obscure amateur clubs and were seeking to impress these big clubs via one or two week trials? Many would be summarily dismissed based on their understandable inability to cope with new nuances that face them in those initial circumstances.

The fact of the matter is that most professional players were not signed directly from trials. Players are usually spotted by scouts or managers at lower level clubs or in international football. If impressed, the interested club might do some statistical research on the targeted player, possibly try to see the player in action again, and then in short order, a decision to sign or not to sign is made and the necessary processes and protocols set in motion.

Revolving practice

This revolving practice of young promising Jamaican players being shipped off to these frequent trials is basically a 'long-shot exercises' in futility that typically bears no fruit. The hypocritical rhetoric that typically accompanies the almost systemic rejection of the youngsters is hardly consolation for the inevitable disappointments. The list of recent players who have endured this traumatic ride comprises the likes of Peter-Lee Vassell, Kaheem Paris, Jourdaine Fletcher, Tyreek Magee, Maalique Foster, and Kevon Lambert. Before them there were Alex Marshall and Chevone 'Messi' Marsh, and even before those, there were Marvin Morgan and others.

All have visited European clubs on various trial stints,and indeed some continue to do so, getting the usual soft endorsements, but very little or nothing in terms of contracts. The only Jamaican player in recent memory to have got a reasonable break directly from a trial is Kemar 'Taxi' Lawrence, who was signed by Major League Soccer outfit New York Red Bulls after a trial at the 20I4 MLS Combine.

Otherwise, these trials have consistently made a mockery of Jamaican football talent.

On the other hand, the local clubs, coaches, and, particularly the players must play their part in ensuring that their individual talent and skills are complemented by the requisite work ethic, professionalism, and mental and psychological fortitude needed in a player for him to attract decent offers. Jamaican players generally need to be better physically prepared and more disciplined in their approach to the game on and off the field in order to give themselves the best chance of grasping these rare opportunities when they arise.

Local clubs also need to forge more meaningful partnerships and relationships with international agents and bigger clubs with a view of making more actual deals instead of being resigned to the fallacy of these trials. Local clubs need to show a greater appreciation of the reality that the better the quality of the player, the easier it will be for a deal to be struck.

Leon Bailey is a case worth noting. For sure, the relevant contacts and arrangements were made, but the fact that Bailey was well-prepared and ready, and has genuine quality, meaning written contracts presented forthwith, instead of idle rhetoric.

It is obviously not an easy road, but Jamaican players must step up their game on and off the field, not just to avoid being subjected to the now routine indignity of these generally useless and subtly disrespectful trials, but to increase their chances of signing real professional football contracts.