Nike's The Chance Global Tour Stops At St. George's Park
The Chance Global Tour has taken the players to some of the best training centres around the world. For the last leg of a five-week selection process the boys enjoyed a two-day training camp at England s National Football Centre at St George s Park. Take a look at how they got on.
Over the two days, the players were given full access to the vast facility including use of the indoor and outdoor pitches. Pearce and Hodgson were on hand to deliver specialist training sessions, giving Nike s head Chance scout Jimmy Gilligan further opportunity to assess the players suitability for selection. 
Pearce, who as a player won 78 caps for his country and has served as Head Coach of the England Under-21 side since 2007, is well-qualified to assess young players. "These 16 players have already achieved so much by getting to this Global Tour stage of The Chance so it's a massive credit to them.
"The attitude and ability they showed me here at St George's Park has been first-class, from when they walked onto the pitch for warm-up right through to every session I've done with them," Pearce said. "You can tell straightaway that there's a great enthusiasm, a great work ethic and the willingness to want to get better." 
Following the on-pitch session The Chance squad spent the afternoon recovering from the rigors of the past week by taking advantage of the rehabilitation and performance centre. Each squad member was determined to be in optimum shape for the next day s session with Roy Hodgson.
The England manager s reputation as a rigorous coach precedes him and he didn t disappoint. Having consulted with Stuart Pearce in order to gauge the finalists level and needs, Hodgson set up a session focusing on movement, possession and crossing, emphasising throughout the importance of timing runs both with and without the ball.
English finalist Jose Figura added: Being able to train with England international coaches has been great because they have a lot of experience. It was just great to take on their knowledge and bring it into my game. Both coaches focused on movement, which is important with the way football is developing nowadays."
Hodgson oversaw a technical 8-sided game with a 3 touch restriction before sitting down with Jimmy Gilligan to discuss the players. "It is great that Nike has The Chance and I think it's even more praiseworthy that the Nike Academy exists, where there are players working all the time," Hodgson said. "It will be a magnificent achievement for the three players who are selected to join the Nike Academy."
The Nike Academy is a full-time player academy based in England and supported by The FA Premier League. Since its inception, The Chance competition has seen 16 players earn professional contracts. The 16 finalists on the tour are as follows:
Ismail H¹Maidat (Belgium), Dario Van Den Buijs (Belgium), Dimitris Komnos (Greece), Marco Vinicius Di Lauro (Italy), Ryosuke Kinoshita (Japan), Kirill Laptev (Russia), Petar Golubovic (Serbia), Teboho Charlie Tsotetsi (South Africa), Saifeddine Alami Bazza (Spain), Gonzalo Balbi (Spain), Bubakary Sonko (Sweden), Jose Figura (United Kingdom), Brian Iloski (United States), Kevin Salazar Chiquiza (Colombia), Joel Bravo (Ecuador) and Fernando Canales (Peru).
