Not many young sixteen year old’s would get the chance to make such a lucrative move but in the case of Ben Beresford, dreams can come true if you work hard enough, as the former Notts County Academy starlet and more recently, Basford United youngster found out.

Beresford may have thought his chances at an ‘elite level’ football club were over, having been released aged 14 from Notts County but when United Youth Coach Kevin Haynes invited Beresford to trial out with his club, the player never looked back, growing in confidence with age, ability and maturity to alert one or two big boys into taking action.

Before receiving a two-year scholarship at Birmingham City last week, Beresford also alerted the likes of Premier League Leicester City but joins a club with huge success in developing players, most recently of course Jude Bellingham who joined Borussia Dortmund in the summer making his Bundesliga debut aged just 17 and 77 days.

Even back to the days of Trevor Francis, the Blues have had a great pedigree of bringing players through and Beresford is said to be the ‘first ever player from grassroots football to sign a scholarship with the club’ testament to how much they already believe in the youngster who also had a spell at Dunkirk previously.

Basford themselves have been doing impressive things with a huge youth section now at the club which has already started to pay dividends in reaching the 2^nd round of the FA Youth Cup for the first time ever after beating Port Vale in the last round comprehensively at Vale Park 4-1 last month.

First Team Manager Steve Chettle one of the first to congratulate Beresford publicly on his fantastic move stated “We are delighted for Ben and it’s testament to the work Kev has done with Ben and the rest of the Basford United Under 16’s.”

“We are building a great reputation for producing players from within our own grassroots pathway and we want to continue this with more Under 16’s progressing in our Educational Academy and pushing this seasons Academy group that already progressed to the 2nd round of the FA Youth Cup.”

“We have also had players from the Academy on the bench, making senior debuts and scoring for the First Team this season already. We look forward to continuing this progression both within the club and for those fortunate enough into the professional game as well.”

*Main image @basfordutdfc Ben Beresford joins Birmingham City from Basford United.