From the age of 11 years, the National football association does keep talent detection days. There are organised at state level. The idea behind it is the discover talents which aren't yet discovered by the professional clubs!
Participation is mandatory. If not present when called up, the player in question will be suspended for a certain amount of games.
Of course not every players from this age group (under 12) is called up. The first round exists of 3 or 4 days. Where more or less all players who do play at interstate and state level are called up. There is an extra day in which the clubs may send player from the regional level.
When called up one has to be there an hour in advance. The identity is checked by ID card and players are assigned to a team. Each player than has 2X20 minutes time to prove themself in a match!

So in the beginning of November @simplylars was called up for his talent detection days! The home club does appoint 2 possitions for the players. And they do play 1 time 20 minutes on both possitions. For Lars this is right defender and right winger. THis allow them to invest around 144 players per talent detection day!

Lars didn't play excellent but wasn't bad either! It was refreshing for him to play wioth other players! So we did consider this a once in a life time experience and forgot about it!
Multiple reasons for this! A. He isn't actually the next Messi and in these games the more technical players do have an advantage! B. Maybe he is one of the better players in his team, but he would be the average player in the other interstate team of our club! C. While it is his dream, like most of the kids, to become a professional football player, there is only 0.01% change that this will happen! There are so much better players as him in our state!

Surprise

But to our surprise he is called up for the second round. We did receive an email yesterday afternoon with the invitation! How about that! I do know that he has some capabilities which are pretty rare in Football. Without bragging he can read a game. He can pass the ball with right (dominant foot) and left!
I have no idea how many players are selected for this second round. From his team I do know that Lars and Ali did receive an email! Probably also some players from our other interstate level U12 will be selected.
Well besides being surprised I am of course also proud of him!
Again we will consider this a once in a lifetime experience. I do beleive that after this round only 64 players will be left. And because we are already surprised that he did reach this levelwe don't count on it that he progress to the next round! But you never know!

Karma!!!!

But this also feels a little bit of Karma against some other parents in our team!
Let me explain this a little bit more! Last monday I was talking to a dad from a player who was injured for the past 3 months! Also a dad of another player was standing with us. So we were going over the season part which his son did miss. I also did tell him that 2 players are already petulant after the warm up because they do have the feeling that the other don't give them 100% during the warm up for a game or just aren't concentrated! So he did ask which players! So I did reply Ali and Lars.
Suddenly the other dad did interfere and asked me: If there are such good players and are playing below there level, why aren't they scouted yet by a bigger team! WTF! What did I say to provoce this question.
As team officials, I do protect all players! I do care about them! I do try to motivate them! And I have never said anything about the qualities of other players! But I do tell people if they do ask how their kid performed. If it was good I will say that it was good, but if it was bad, I will also tell them that they didn't play well!
So maybe this was some kind of frustration for his side towards me!
Well here is the answer to his remark :)

Once again, Lars wont become a pro. I have no intention to tell anyone within the team about his selection. They will know it but not from me! If I do tell this, they will accuse me of bragging! Strange world we live if!
Well I would be happy for anyone within our team if they would be selected! Regardless if my son made the selection or not!
The son of a friend of mine plays at the other interstate level from our club and without a doubt his son is a more complete (better) footballer than Lars. He was happy for Lars that he made it, while feeling a little bit sad for his son!

Cheers,
Peter