Deese Kasinga was 17 years old and doing a gym session with some of the academy players at Newcastle United when he was called in to a meeting about his future.
As he came back out of the room, there were cheers and questions from his older team-mates who knew what the meeting was for – and were desperate to know the details of his exciting new professional contract.
But Kasinga had just been told he was being released from Newcastle’s academy. His Premier League dream began to slip away.
“You think you’re mentally prepared for it until you go into the office and it actually comes out their mouth and they’re like, ‘we’re not going to extend your contract’ and reality hits you,” says Kasinga.
In 2017, Kasinga made the Guardian’s Next Generation list – alongside players such as Chelsea’s Callum Hudson-Odoi – which featured ’20 of the best talents/first-year scholars at Premier League clubs’.
It said…