After a 23 hour flight we arrived in Heathrow where we travelled across to Swindon to start our soccer
journey. We had a training session then went and watched a Premier League match between Southampton and Burnley. The next day we travelled to Bath and explored the ancient city including the Roman Baths which were breathtaking.
Mitch at Old Trafford, Manchester United’s home ground.
We started our journey north playing Notts County in Nottingham, this is a junior development squad with lots of talent. Our next stop was St Georges Park, the home of English football. We had a valuable training session on David Beckham pitch with world class coaches. After the field session we had a tour of the facilities followed by a hydrotherapy session and ice bath. We were also lucky enough to watch the under 17 English team train. Our next stop was a tour of Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United followed by a training session at Liverpool Football Academy.
We then travelled further north to play academy team – Sandbach United FC, these teams usually act as a feeder club . I was very excited that I had the opportunity to watch my favourite team Manchester City play Southampton (again) at Etihad Stadium (c’mon City). The next morning we attended a training session with Manchester United head of youth coaches followed by a seminar, this was very informative and rewarding. That afternoon we had a tour of Liverpool’s home stadium, Anfield. We continued our journey to Wales where we played Buckley Town FC.
Our final destination on the tour was Newcastle. In Newcastle we watched a championship game between Newcastle and Preston. St James Park produced an electric atmosphere with 49,000 fans cheering their teams on. Whilst here we also completed a tour of St James Park, during the tours of all the stadiums we visited the dressing rooms and got to run through the tunnel to the pitch. We got to sit on the home and away teams benches. It was interesting to learn about the makeup of the pitch as they all contained 2-6% of artificial grass and had heat lamps going 24/7 to help the grass grow as there is not enough sunlight in the UK.
From the UK we travelled to Paris where we climbed the Eiffel Tower, visited the Louvre, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe , Notre Dame &
many other famous buildings. We also had a fun time at Disneyland and Disney Studios, we were lucky enough to be at Disneyland the night of Halloween, we witnessed some amazing costumes! After 4 exciting days in Paris we flew back to London where we visited Buckingham Palace, watched the changing of the guard, a very well executed change over. We also visited Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and viewed the sights of the city from the London Eye. We strolled Oxford Street & had dinner on our final night in London at Jamie Oliver’s famous restaurant.
We started our journey home with a stop-over in Dubai where we went to the Atlantis Water Park at the Palm and spent the evening 4 wheel driving over the sand dunes on a Safari into the desert. We watched the sunset, had a Camel ride, sand boarded down a huge sand dune followed by a traditional dinner at a camp in the desert.
It was an amazing experience, one I will remember for a life time!
By Mitchell Brown
