I'm jealous! These four South Tyneside kids lived the Italian football dream
Gol! Four South Tyneside youngsters got an Italian offer they would never forget ten years ago.
These exceptional’ football hopefuls from South Tyneside were set for the trip of their lives after being invited to train with one of the world’s biggest clubs.
Back of the net with this 2015 Italian offer
AC Milan held a soccer camp for children in Hebburn, and 106 South Tynesiders took advantage of the chance to receive tuition from some of the Italian club’s coaches.
The youngsters, all aged between six and 16, trained for a week in the camp which was held at Hebburn Sports and Social Ground.
At the end of it, the coaches decided that Owen Stephenson, Rory Powell, Kyle Harrison and Luke Hudson had all done well enough to merit a trip to Milan.
Off to the San Siro
They were due to fly out to Italy in March 2016, and would get the chance to play on the pitch at the 80,000-capacity San Siro ahead of an AC Milan game there.
The soccer camp was co-ordinated by DB Football Development Ltd in partnership with Azzurri Sports Management Ltd.
South Tyneside-based Carl Dunn, who represented AC Milan in the UK, said the children selected were set to have a "fantastic experience".
He said at the time: "On the last day of the camp, the AC Milan coaches said that, in their eyes, four of the children at the camp were exceptional.
‘It will be a fantastic experience for them’
"They asked me to ask Milan for permission to take them all over there next year to train with them, and play for them in a tournament.
"The coaches didn’t want to leave any of them out, so they will now all get the chance to play in a tournament at the San Siro.
"It will take place before an AC Milan game, so there’ll be plenty of fans there, and it will be a fantastic experience for them.
"They will be playing in their AC Milan strips against what is likely to be Inter Milan’s youth team. In the camps we’ve done so far, the coaches have usually selected one or two to fly over, but the coaches thought that the standard was so high at Hebburn that they wanted to take four of them."
Following the success of the camp in Hebburn, Milan were looking to introduce many more camps.
We would love to hear from the fabulous footballing four.
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