Jackson Irvine

Like, it wasn't like an official, you know, scouting report, you know, blah, blah, blah.

They kind of was just, and we went over, um, exactly for that.

You know, my parents actually didn't even come with me to the, like the training sessions, the training session at the end, I was there with my auntie who had, who lives in Scotland, who drove me to the game.

And, um,

Yeah, again, I never had any real expectation that it was going to lead to a contract offer and a career in Europe.

I think it was just a chance to test myself on that scale of kids my own age who are at the highest level of the game in the UK.

So, yeah, I went over, I played a game and I remember after the game they took me upstairs to the kind of boardroom at the training ground and I thought, oh, this must be where they're like...

Tell me how I went.

I don't know.

Like, you know, I was 16.

At 16, I had no idea.

And it was like the head of the academy, the under-19s coach and a couple of, you know, other people.

And I'm just in there with my auntie.

And they said to me, yeah, like...

You've done really well.

They really liked my physical scores from the testing and stuff, like athletically.

And they were like, yeah, there's something there.

We want to offer you two years in the academy as a professional contract.

And I was like, right.

And again, I didn't really like know, you know, again, I've never been part of this conversation.