Welling United's Ben Greenhalgh is glad to be back where it all started following time at Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan
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Ben Greenhalgh with Inter Milan's technical
director Piero Ausilio
by Matthew Panting
Ben Greenhalgh feels like he has returned home
by rejoining Welling – just three years after leaving for his
Italian dream.
After breaking into the Welling first-team at
the end of the 2008/09 season, and helping the Wings win the Kent
Senior Cup, Greenhalgh quit the club at the start of the following
season to take part in Sky One’s television show Football’s Next
Star.
The prize was a six-month professional deal
with Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan. As we all know, Greenhalgh won
the competition and the rest – as they say – is history.
But after deciding that life in Italy is not
for him and surprisingly being snubbed by Football League clubs in
England, Greenhalgh has turned full circle to rejoin the Wings.
“It’s good that I can come back here and
everyone knows of me and that it feels a bit like home in that
respect,” he admitted.
“I’m really looking forward to the game with
Farnborough and if I’m not starting then I can’t wait to come on
and see what happens.
“Even though I only played a few games here,
it was the only place in England where I have played first-team
games. It’s where I’ve played my best football in this country so
this is where it feels good to be here at the moment.”
Greenhalgh feels he will develop better at
Park View Road in Welling’s first team than trying to work his way
up a development or reserve system at a professional club.
It’s certainly a chance to get in the shop
window but he knows that he needs to be playing games first and
foremost.
“I got international clearance last week and
am now letting everyone know back in England that I’m here to
play,” he added.
“I spent nearly two years in Italy and people
forget about you when you are there so it’s been good to come back
and get my name back out there. I had a lot of clubs interested but
the best thing to do now is to come back here and get some
first-team games in.
“It’s more getting some games in for me now
and having the opportunity to play.
“I had a couple of trials but I didn’t think
any of them were going to go anywhere. Some of them wanted to get
me into their development squad and then loan you out to a club
like Welling so I thought it best to come here.”
*Read more on Ben Greenhalgh's Italian
adventure tomorrow as he talks of time spent training with the
likes of like Javier Zanetti and Mario
Balotelli.
Thursday, February 16 2012
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