Former All White to try luck in Britain

Former All White Greg Draper is off to England this week in a bid to secure a professional contract, but World Cup squad member Aaron Clapham is still waiting to hear if he will get an A-League trial in Australia.

Clapham, 23, had hoped to trial with the Newcastle Jets, but that opportunity evaporated when the Hunter Valley club last week signed Italian midfielder Marcello Fiorentini to complete their 20-man squad.

"It was disappointing," said Clapham, who is training in Christchurch. "Everything is up in the air at the moment.

"I've got an agent in Australia working for me, so, hopefully, something will come up."

He spent a month training under All Whites coach Ricki Herbert.

Clapham bypassed a second season with Victorian premier league club Dandenong Thunder to go to the World Cup.

He said it was "pretty late in the season" to go back to Melbourne.

"I want to be aiming for something a bit higher than that now," Clapham said.

Meanwhile, Draper, 20, leaves Christchurch tonight after a stint with Mainland premier league club Ferrymead Bays.

He will start training with an unnamed football league club on Saturday (NZ time).

He said yesterday he had arranged trials at "a couple of clubs" in league two (English professional football's fourth tier) and Ferrymead team-mate Drew Sherman had also put him in touch with Welsh club Newport County, which had been promoted to England's conference (fifth-tier) league.

The former Wellington Phoenix player will base himself in his mother's home town, Yeovil, in Somerset.

He hopes to convince a club to sign him for the new English season, which begins next month.

He came home to Christchurch after playing for Team Wellington in last summer's New Zealand Football Championship and rejoined Ferrymead, his first senior club.

"I've enjoyed being back in Christchurch ... but I really need to go now and give myself the best chance of getting back into professional football."

Draper said it was unfortunate he had to leave before Ferrymead's Chatham Cup quarterfinal against Otago club Caversham at Barnett Park on Sunday.

"I'd like to have been here for that, but I got some incredibly cheap flights [to Britain] so I have to go now."

- © Fairfax NZ News