DAVID WEINER

JETSETTING from a tournament in Singapore to trial in a professional environment in England; asking Socceroo Mark Schwarzer for advice in Fulham’s players lounge; spending a week being hosted by a club chairman before featuring in the club’s match-day program in a match against Southhampton: sound like a young football fan’s dream?

Well the fantasy-turned-reality just got better for Robbie Ezekiel and Gilad Swartz, who impressed in their stint at Oldham Athletic Football Club, earning an invitation back to trial again in 2010.

Ezekiel, the Maccabi-Hakoah Youth Development League (YDL) under-14s captain and a talented sporting all-rounder, earned the trial as the winner of the Primo-TableKraft Player of the Year award earlier this month.

Accompanied by Swartz and former Central Coast Mariner Laurence Braude, the trio travelled to Oldham -– 30 kilometres from Manchester -– to trial with the English First Division club, which plays in a league boasting famous clubs such as Leeds, Charlton and Norwich City.

Braude, who is in the UK, intends to try to earn a return invite.

“It was a win-win situation,” Ezekiel explained. “It was a bit surreal … we got to go there and have the experience of a lifetime, and maybe get invited back. It was amazing.”

The players were accompanied by YDL chairman Jon Marcuson, Swartz’s father Ashley and former Socceroo and Maccabi mentor Ian Gray, who was a calming and guiding influence for the boys, and organised former Marconi teammate Schwarzer to meet the boys.

The players were there under the auspices of Maccabi -– and information about the club featured in the match-day program and the Oldham Evening Standard.

Before the trial process began, they were welcomed by the club’s management and sampled the game-day atmosphere firsthand against Southampton, travelling on the team bus, before watching the game with the youth side.

“Oldham went out of its way for us,” Marcuson said from the UK. “Oldham has treated us like its long-lost friends and is watching very closely the abilities of our boys.”

After the festivities, which included being at the Wigan versus Manchester City match, the boys got down to business. They went through two sessions a day, with ball and technical work in the morning, and gym or shooting and agility work in the afternoon.

The young teenagers were thrown right into the deep end as well, and trained with the club’s youth squad, not the under-15 side.

“They were all huge; they put their bodies on the line for every ball. All these guys had a spot in the team but it was a matter of life and death for them. A much different environment to Australia,” Ezekiel reflected.

“But off the field, they were really encouraging, really nice, asked us lots of questions. Being around the team, the fun, chatting in the dressing room – that’s something I’ll never forget.”

Meanwhile, the boys arrived in freezing England after touring a sweltering Singapore with their under-14 Maccabi teammates for a six-match tour, which included 5-0 and 2-1 wins against a local academy team and an under-14 Malaysian side, and a draw against a Thai outfit.