How EFL Exit Trials give players another chance at professional football

Football’s success stories are always quick to steal the headlines, but behind the scenes the EFL and its Clubs work hard to ensure young players are given as many chances as possible. 

Marvin Sordell, Jamie Vardy and Chris Smalling all went through the trials and tribulations of being released as a young player before being given a second chance in the professional game through Exit Trials.  

As part of the opportunities the League gives to young players, the EFL Youth Development team arranges assessment or “Exit” Trials for under-16s players released by EFL and Premier League Academies.  

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The trials are held on a regional basis (North, Midlands and South) during February with each event attracting approximately 100 players. Scouts and representatives from the majority of EFL clubs attend alongside a number of Premier League and non-League clubs, with universities and colleges also well represented.  

The events provide an excellent exit route, with an average of 27 players (approximately 10% of those attending) each season gaining a scholarship at another professional club. 

Darren Wassall, the EFL’s Head of Youth Development, stressed the importance of offering those released from academies a chance to continue their career in the sport they love.  

“Traditionally, out of about 300 players that attend, 10% of them get offered a scholarship at another League club or even a Premier League club. I think it’s a really great example of how we, as the EFL, are offering alternative routes and pathways into out clubs,” Darren said. 

“When one door shuts, another one opens and I think it’s a really great initiative that started long before I arrived, but I think having seen it myself and the amount of organisation that goes into it, it’s a brilliant event.” 

The Exit Trials represent just one opportunity for players with Wassall keen to highlight that many players get snapped up by as soon as they are released with Clubs doing their homework on other young players. 

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Although the exit trials have been ongoing for a number of years at the League, with hundreds of players being given another opportunity to progress their career, Wassall is still looking to constantly improve the process in which players can stake another claim in the game.  

The former Derby County Academy Director continued: “Our mantra is ‘continual improvement’, so, if we think we can do things even better then we will certainly be open minded enough to look into it. I’ve seen the exit trials from the other side and sending players onto them in the hope they get picked up by another club. It’s a massive event which takes a huge amount of time to organise, but it’s a moment in time for people to go. It’s not perfect because someone could be having a bad day, but it’s not the only opportunity that the players who are released will get.  

“They could’ve gone on trial to clubs in January, let's say to four different clubs, to try and get a scholarship and then been offered a deal but will use the exit trials to see if they can get a better offer from somebody else. Where they go on trial to a single club, that is then the only people looking at them, whereas if they come to the exit trials they’ll have 70-80 scouts watching them. It only takes one scout to like them.”