Inglewood United’s Paul Zimarino will attend trials at Spanish club Real Valladolid next month as the teenager seeks to further his career in Europe. Zimarino, 17, has been invited to spend four weeks with Valladolid after catching the eye of coaching staff while captaining Inglewood’s youth team during April’s three-game tour of Spain.

“This is a huge opportunity for me,” enthused Zimarino. “I’ve been invited for an extended trial with the Real Valladolid International team. I’ll be training with them every day for a month and staying in residence with all the other international players.”

“The tour in April was a great experience and this will be the same, only this time I’ll be by myself and away for extended period of time. No matter what the end result is, it will help my football dramatically because I’ll be experiencing world class coaching and facilities day in, day out.”

To say it’s been a whirlwind season for Zimarino would be an understatement. The attacking midfielder started the year playing Under-18s and upon his return from Spain was promoted to the Under-20s. A torn quadricep failed to halt his progress with Michael Garcia adding the teenager to his senior list last month.

Zimarino’s rise up the ranks was completed with his senior debut against Armadale ten days ago. “It was a huge step up but I felt ready for the challenge,” he said. “Considering how nervous I was and that I’m just getting back from five weeks out through injury, I was quite content with my performance.”

“I’ve got two starts and I want to start the rest of the season. The speed and physical side of things in the first team will be pretty close if not higher than Spain. I need to be challenging myself and stepping up my game before I go over there, and playing in the first team can do that.”