Irish get chance of trial for TV show

FOOTBALL TALENT:THE CONTESTANTS from this year's Britain's Got Talent roll into Dublin on Tuesday for a one-off show at the 02 but between now and then TV people will be busy trying to unearth a somewhat different sort of star up by the airport at Dublin's AUL complex.

Football’s Next Star (FSN) is the brainchild of the same Irishman, Damien O’Brien, who dreamed up Football Icon a few years ago. That show promised the winner a contract at Chelsea and its strong association with the London club prompted a name change when the focus switched to Inter Milan, who are offering a 12-month deal to a teenager to come through this year’s series.

A couple of thousand teenagers are expected to attempt to get through the Dublin trials, which started yesterday when about 540 took part, and continue until Monday. Senior members of Inter’s scouting academy staff are amongst those carrying out the assessments and the hope is 10 Irish players will impress sufficiently to join similar numbers from London, Manchester and Glasgow in a sort of semi-finals to be held in Watford at the end of next month.

From there, 10 will go on to a five-week finale at the Serie A club’s training camp near Lake Como, where a single winner will eventually emerge.

At its core, the idea seems to be essentially a footballing version of the hugely-popular variety version that gave rise to next Tuesday’s show and one need only mention Susan Boyle to highlight there has been a downside to its phenomenal success.

Ennis-born O’Brien, though, insists while FSN may indeed be another attempt to capitalise on the current popularity of television talent shows, the ethos here is significantly different. “Well, I think the main thing is we’re not trying to take the p*** out of anybody,” he says. “The bottom line is we want to make somebody’s dream, not blow dreams away and show that on TV. The club is genuinely looking to uncover a talented player who they can sign and bring through to the first team. We’re all aware people slip through the net and a show like this is a second chance for all concerned.”

Nevertheless, there will be those who see the enterprise as being primarily exploitative, with tiny odds of selection followed by likely rejection of the winner once the TV cameras have moved on. O’Brien, however, points to the winner of the second and last of the Icons series, Carl Magnay, who, having been let go by Leeds United as a youngster and subsequently worked in a factory in Newcastle while playing Sunday league football, is now a reserve-team regular at Stamford Bridge having recently signed a new contract.

“Carl’s done brilliantly,” says O’Brien, “and his hope to is get into the reckoning for the first team over the course of next year. Now, we’re looking to uncover somebody who can work towards the same goal under the “Special One” (Jose Mourinho) at Inter.”

The competition, which consists of a series of technical assessments followed by games between teams of selected individuals, is open to outfield players aged between 16 and 18 who have not signed a contract with a professional club. Pre-registration is required and this can be done via the footballsnextstar.com website or by calling 0818 444 400 (national rates apply). The series will be broadcast later in the year by Sky.