Luca Slaney is one of the 16 selected over a period of 3 months trials with over 450 other trialists to play in the Junior Premier League (JPL) Representative squad.

The trials over the summer and throughout October were extremely competitive, which made the decision of selecting players even harder for the 2018-19 season with over 450 other trialists. Nevertheless, following a review of the players with the JPL staff they have now selected 16-18 players for the 2018-19 team and Luca Slaney is to be part of this programme for the 2018-19 programme.

What does this mean?

This means Luca is to represent the JPL in a number of fixtures throughout the season against professional academies as well as games against the other JPL regions and training camps.

To be involved in the representative team for any year is an honour and privilege for those players selected. Currently, the league has roughly 12,000 players in the league with around 1200 players in each age group. Therefore, any player selected is in the top 2% of players in that specific age group. The aim of the programme is to provide the players within the league a high quality experience at some of the worlds best academies and hopefully create a pathway for them to develop, improve and eventually progress to one of those academies. Failing that, we hope that these players leave us at U16 and progress in to a education pathway that has a strong footballing programme where players have the opportunity to play within the National League and at other semi professional levels.
In the 2016-17 season, 40% of players signed professional contracts and over 60% had a trial at a professional club.

This has only been possible due to Luca Slaney being part of Shoreham Football Club Academy and the great coaching being offered and we hope that we have many more players following in Luca's footsteps.
Luca plays for our U16s JPL team and through hard work and support from the academy, Luca has the opportunity to move up to another level of football.
Shoreham Football Academy currently have two JPL teams an U14s and an U16s, if you are interested in being part of a great local academy offering children true opportunities then please contact us www.sfacademy.co.uk