Nathan Trott spent two years in Valencia, Spain, being groomed as a future professional footballer ... although he was not even a goalkeeper at the time.

The switch came later, upon his return to Bermuda, when he travelled to the Caribbean for a tournament with the Bermuda under-15 team and an injury to Ajai Daniels saw him take over in goal.

The rest, as they often say, is history.

Last week, at the age of 18, Trott signed a 3½-year deal with Premier League club West Ham United after making steady progress in their development teams.

He is showing the potential to one day become one of the top goalkeepers produced by Bermuda, although he almost never became a goalkeeper at all.

In fact, he was a left-sided outfield player when he went to Valencia at the age of just 12 with another youngster, Cameron Neal, as part of their Next Generation programme.

Coach David Sanz, who ran the Valencia Academy programme at Saltus when he was living in Bermuda, made it possible for the pair to go to Spain.

“During the entire time he was in Spain he was out on the field, played left back, left midfield and even played up front for a bit,” said Dwayne Trott, Nathan’s father. “It was all arranged through Andrew [Bascome] and Henrik Schroder.”

Schroder was the director of ABC Football School who set up the island’s branch of the Valencia Academy at Saltus, aimed at developing a programme to send players over to Valencia.

“One of the first coaches who came here was David Sanz who, in his first summer in Bermuda, came to me when Nathan was ten and said to me, ‘It would be nice if you can get Nathan over to Spain because I see something in him’,” Trott Sr said. “I’m like, ‘David, ten?’

“At that time for two or three summers they were going to Spain to participate in a tournament. At that time he was playing out in the field and scoring goals. That was his pathway to going to Spain when he was 12½. It was a good year and a bit before we decided to give it a shot.”

Another youngster, Osagi Bascome, who made his debut for Bermuda in this year’s World Cup qualifiers and is on the verge of signing a contract with Bristol City, also travelled to Valencia around the same time as did Jonas Schroder, a student at Saltus.

Trott Sr was a goalkeeper himself, turning out for both St George’s and Devonshire Colts. One important gene passed down is his height, with Nathan already a couple of inches taller than his dad.

“Nathan was training with the under-15s and [coach] Andrew didn’t want to go with just Ajai as goalkeeper,” Trott Sr said. “Andrew came to me and said, ‘What do you think about Nathan being the back-up keeper’, and I said to him, ‘I think that’s a conversation you need to have with Nathan; if he’s a team player he’ll play anywhere’.

“So about two weeks before he was due to go ahead, he started training as a goalkeeper. It was two tournaments, the first to the Caribbean when Ajai played all three games and after that they went to a tournament in Mexico when Ajai played the first 20 minutes against Chile and got injured and Nathan came on.

“He finished off that game and played against Portugal and got man of the match and also played against Colombia, so that was his baptism by fire as all three of those games I think Bermuda lost 2-0.”

At that time Trott was playing for BAA and, when he came back, he decided to remain a goalkeeper, going on to make his senior debut for the club before transferring to North Village in 2015, just before going to England for trials at West Ham. He never did play for North Village, however.

“What’s interesting is it is a similar path for him and me because when I was at Saltus, up to about 15, I played outfield, too, which is the scary part,” Trott said.

“I let him make his own decisions; everybody thinks because I was a goalkeeper that I had some influence, but nope. Mind you, when he was at Saltus, he played around in goal, but nothing serious.”

Trott is also happy that Nathan has a couple of family members close by in Chelmsford — Eugene and Lorene Phillips — whom he keeps in touch with.

“Without his uncle and aunt over there it could have been a different story. They are about a 25-minute drive on the A12. Every time he’s off he’s there with them.”