We might not have an under 12s keeper yet but we definitely have a gem of an under 13s keeper. Best I’ve ever seen. I’m really intrigued to see how good he is in 4-5 years time.
The academy at that age will give trials themselves for players they’ve spotted. They have spotters at a lot of games. Also they quite regularly pick up the best kids from local academies like BIC. A team called Rockleaze Rangers are an academy now in all but name.
On the note of keepers, there is now a trend to turn outfield players into goalkeepers if they (a) are not quite good enough for outfield, (b) are tall, and (c) are good with their feet. They will then get quite intense keeping training and go from there. O’Leary one of the first as he was a defender but that definitely bucked the trend at the time. Lot more going through that now across the game.