Antoine Semenyo has opened up about how brutal football trials can be, admitting he underestimated their intensity when he started out.
The Ghanaian forward recalled how he thought he was simply going to play the game he loved, until reality hit.
Semenyo, who had trials at Arsenal, Tottenham, and Millwall, explained how things became difficult when he joined Crystal Palace at age 15.
After eight months with the club, he believed he was on the verge of a contract. But a single decision during a trial match changed everything.
“No, I don’t think so. I thought I was just playing football. I didn’t really think about it. I just went there and had fun, but I didn’t realise how intense it was until I got there. And that’s why, maybe, for the first two years after 12, it was really tough. But when I got to 15/16, I really understood that it’s a different ball game, it’s not Sunday League,” he told Showmax
“So, yeah, it was a bit tough at the start. I got to Palace and I thought it was going well. I was there for maybe eight months and I thought I was getting signed, there was a game. I played that game and my dad was there and I think I should have squared it to someone. And I shot. And I hit the post and went off the pitch.
“My dad said he’d seen the manager in the distance shaking his head and he knew from that point I wasn’t going to get signed. And to be fair, he didn’t tell me. It’s not long ago he told me that, to be fair,”
