Fremantle City midfielder Matt Danskin has finally been given the go-ahead to head to Germany to take up a four-year contract with top club Werder Bremen. The 17-year old was offered terms with the Bundesliga club in January, but a hold-up with his international clearance put his professional career in limbo. After a seven month delay, Danskin's clearance came through last week - just 24-hours before the registration cut-off for Germany's Under-19 competition. This week the former Forrestfield United junior discussed the events of the past twelve months in which he's represented the State, travelled twice to Europe for trials, and make most recently make his first team debut for Fremantle ...

"Last October I played for the State Under-16's, with Ron Tindall as coach, at the National Talent Identification Championships in Sydney," said the Valsport-sponsored teenager. "We really played well and made it to the Grand Final where we were unlucky to lose 0-1 to Northern New South Wales - I hit the bar with a header after about 15 minutes, if that had gone in we may well have got the lift we were looking for. But it was our seventh game in eight days and we were all totally knackered having come through a much harder qualifying group than our opponents. After the third game of the tournament Ron Tindall introduced my parents and I to a scout from Germany - Mr Wolf Werner from S.V. Werder Bremen. He'd already approached Soccer Australia for permission to speak to us and told us a little bit about his club before inviting me to go to Germany in January for trials - all expenses paid."

"In November, dad and I went to a couple of clubs in the United Kingdom to see what would turn up. I had invites from Rotherham United, Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield Town and Barnsley and, as my dad had connections at Wednesday and Rotherham from his days playing and scouting for Leeds United, I spent two weeks at both Rotherham and Wednesday. Rotherham liked the look of me but said they were not prepared to take a risk on a lad from Australia. Wednesday, with Jimmy Shoulder as their Academy Director, were very keen and immediately lodged an International Registration Transfer Certificate (IRTC ) with the English F.A. This of course was going to be a problem because of the then-new F.I.F.A. ruling about players under the age of 18 and, as a result, the application was knocked back twice and all Wednesday could do was offer to have another look at me when I was 18."

"I spent nearly four weeks at Werder Bremen from January 11th. This was an exciting time, the whole set up was far better than I had seen in England - everything was well planned and organised. I had my own apartment which was attached to the rear of one of the stands, all of the young players have one, the dining room was down the corridor where all your meals are cooked for you. There was also a games room and internet access for everyone. The training was good, the grounds - both grass and astroturf - were immaculate, an Olympic size swimming pool, and the standard of their players was high. I went with the team to an Under-19 tournament in Hamburg which also included teams from Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Hamburg. The day before I came home I was asked to go to the office to see Mr Werner and it was then that he offered me a four year deal - I thought I had done reasonably well at the tournament but you never really know in football! I spoke to my family that night but did not tell them about the contract offer, I waited until I landed at Perth and then told them - we were all pretty pleased."

With a contract on the table that Danskin was more than willing to take up, things slowly ground down to walking pace as his transfer got tied up in red tape. "We knew that getting an international clearance would be difficult because of the F.I.F.A. ruling, however, Mr Werner said that the Players Status Committee at F.I.F.A. look at each case on it's merit and so it proved. Whilst it has taken from February until last week for F.I.F.A. to say yes, we also had the backing from Soccer Australia. They have had previous experience with Werder Bremen and know what a good education and welfare programme they have in place. The endorsement of Soccer Australia, and the fact that I have already been enrolled into a college in Bremen, provided enough substance for the Players Status Committee in Zurich to approve my clearance."

In the meantime, Danksin resumed his club career in the local competition with Fremantle. "When I came back from Germany in early February I was feeling very strong, as you would expect having had some good solid training at a high level for the past couple of months. I played in a number of pre-season games for Fremantle, making my senior debut in the Night Series clash with Western Knights. However, it has taken from the Night Series in April until a month ago for me to get another chance with the first team, which has been a little frustrating. But we have some excellent players at Fremantle in both the Under-18's and the reserves, so I've been patient and kept working hard. Since Greg Kazmer gave me a chance at Joondalup four weeks ago I've managed to keep my spot in the starting line-up and I think I've done well and not let anybody down. After playing against the Future Glory last weekend I decided that that game would be my last for Fremantle, I would hate to get a broken leg now with the flight booked to Germany on September 4th!"

"Before I head overseas, I'd like to publicly thank coaches Mike Tetlow, Joe Pereira, Greg Kazmer, all the players and committee at Fremantle City for the support they've given me in the past season and a half since moving from junior soccer with Forrestfield," added Danskin, whose played for the State at Under-12, 15 and 16 levels. "And to all those that I played with in the State teams - Dean Aplegren, John Migas, Liam Lilly, Damir Kudozovic, Alan Matuecci, Jordan Conti, Jeff Bright, Brian Hedges, Shaun Mooney, Gareth Philips and others - everyone one of you has a chance to make it professionally. I'm the lucky one at this stage who has been given an opportunity but I feel a lot of young players in this state will get a chance over the next couple of years."

Photograph reproduced with permission from Valsport.