Six Maccabi Hakoah Soccer Junior soccer players in the UK

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Six of Maccabi Hakoah’s most promising 15 and 16 year olds soccer players have recently returned from a trip to the UK where they spent their first two weeks with their team playing against English academy teams including West Ham, Swindon Town and QPR.

Back Row: Dylan Blumberg, Sam Wrublewski, Roy Keane, Jake Wakil, Tony Liband Front Row: Bradley Karpin, Justin Malek, Robbie Ezekiel

They were selected by coaching director Barry Walker to stay on in the UK for nine days and train and trial with Championship team Burnley and League two team Stockport County.

Four of the boys, Robbie Ezekiel, Bradley Karpin, Justin Malek and Sam Wrublewski played in this year’s minor premiership winning ydl under 15s team and Dylan Blumberg and Jake Wakil played in the 16s.

They were accompanied by next years under 16s coach (and first grade coach) Mark Robertson a former player with Burnley and Stockport.

The boys had a sensational experience with Stockport and Burnley, training with those clubs’ best 15 and 16 year old boys.Early on the step-up for the boys was quite substantial adjusting to the pace and physicality of English youth teams and on certain days being required to train three times a day.

But the highlight of the trip came when the six boys combined with two other Australian boys and three local trialists to play against Burnley’s under 15 team which remains undefeated this season.Our boys ended up 2 nil victors in a very impressive display that saw them take control of most of the game and demonstrated just how much potential exists in the Maccabi Hakoah youth ranks.

Both the Burnley and Stockport coaches expressed interest in having all 6 of the boys return for a more intensive two or three week training stretch in the future – a great compliment to the boys in respect of what will surely be a trip they will never forget.