Nike Most Wanted

Overview
Limelight Sports was contracted as the event management agency to deliver Most Wanted, a joint initiative from Nike and the Premier League. In the search for the best unsigned football talent in the UK and Ireland, eight large scale football trials were held in seven cities - Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Dublin and two in London.

22 players were selected for a Training Camp and given the opportunity to experience the life of a professional football player for 2 days, including the chance to play in front of some of the countries finest coaches.

Approach
Through a combination of objective and subjective testing, two players from each Most Wanted trial were selected to form the top 22. Six skills based and point-scoring tests were designed to measure the core attributes of a successful player including control, speed, endurance, mental agility, passing, shooting and specific coaching sessions and drills. The highest ranking 30 players after the tests qualified through to the afternoon session, where they were assessed by a panel of top FA coaches in an 11-a-side match. Measuring players on natural ability, potential and on the day performance the panel selected their two Most Wanted players to attend the Final Training Camp.

Limelight Sports’ key deliverables were assisting in the design of the event format and delivery of all eight trials and the Final Training Camp, including sourcing venues, recruiting event day staff, managing technical production, logistics and transport.

Limelight Sports was also responsible for recruiting Local Ambassadors for each event city. Each of these Ambassadors would recruit additional event day staff and select a handful of the very best local talent to take part in the trials.

Outcome
Over 1200 individual players took part in the trials across UK & Ireland and the events formed the basis of a one hour Sky One highlights programme and online content following the stories of selected trialists.

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