PFA pre-season: Fernando Forestieri, Jonny Williams among free agents training at dedicated camp to help find new clubs

The PFA’s pre-season training camp for free agents has returned this summer.

Since 2024, PFA pre-season – a fully-funded residential programme held at Champneys Springs in Leicestershire – has helped combat the uncertainty of free agency and helped players on the road to the next chapter of their playing careers.

Last year, attendees included John Swift – who went on to sign for Portsmouth – and Angus Gunn, who signed for Nottingham Forest then went to the World Cup with Scotland.

This year, the camp has been extended from 10 to 12 weeks, and will include WSL and WSL2 players for the first time.

Sky Sports visited again this year to speak to six players – Fernando Forestieri, Jonny Williams, Will Keane, Kyle Vassell, Marvin Johnson and Tom McIntyre – who are getting up to speed as they look to find their next clubs…

Forestieri: I want to play in England again – and I can play another two years

Fernando Forestieri left Sheffield Wednesday in June 2020 and, since then, has played for Udinese in Italy, Johor Darul Ta’zim in Malaysia and AEL Limassol in Cyprus – but he is seeking a return to English football.

“This is my first time being a free agent. I’m 36 and I understand the situation, but the more important thing is that I feel so good to keep playing,” he told Sky Sports.

“It was different. I had very good experiences, but you realise how much you miss English football. Now it’s time to come back.

“We live in London and my wife is due to give birth in August. My first wish is to find something in England.”.

“I started my coaching badges, so maybe this will be easier for me if I’m playing here. That is my focus, but I’m feeling good to play for another two years.”

Forestieri spent more than two years in Malaysia, and the numbers from his time there are incredible: 72 appearances, 50 goals, 25 assists and 10 trophies.

“My agent played there and I saw the project to play in the Asian Champions League, which is a very hard competition. I went to JDT, which is such a good club with a lot of ambition.

“It’s not because I was too good, it’s because I was at the best club in the country. It was like Manchester City here. You have your talent, you train well, you eat well and you go with the right mentality. Some players go with the wrong mentality and think it’s easy, but it is not easy. You have to push yourself.”

Williams: I want to emulate senior pros that helped me

Former Wales international Jonny Williams left Gillingham earlier this summer after three seasons.

It was the longest time he had spent at one club since Crystal Palace, where he started and stayed between 2002 and 2019.

“It’s my first scenario of being out of contract, pretty much since the age of eight, so I’m blessed PFA pre-season only started three years ago and the timing is perfect for me,” he says.

“Otherwise, I’d just be training at home in Kent on my own. I am one to train, but it’s hard to train when no one is watching.

“I got a heads-up from Gillingham in the January window about having an eye on the summer. We’d fallen down the league a lot and people started planning for next season. That’s fine because you get a head start, mentally. In a way, it was helpful.

“I found it tough there, to be honest. We started every season with really high expectations and, on paper, our team was really good. A lot of it is margins in football, but it just shows what happens if you don’t get the right blend and that consistency.

“To be honest, I think I needed a change and the change has come at the right time. I’m excited to think, wherever I go, I can help that team and help people around me.

“I was so fortunate when I was young to have the leadership group [at Palace] with the likes of Paddy McCarthy, Mile Jedinak, Damien Delaney, Julian Speroni. They were top senior pros and I’m stepping into that region where I will be that guy so, wherever I go, I want to be that guy, help everyone around me and win. I look forward to that challenge.

“I missed a lot of football from 17 to 22/23 so, however long I can play for, I just want to enjoy that period for as long as I can.”

Keane targeting Championship return

Will Keane spent the second half of last season on loan at Reading.

“It started really well. I got a couple of goals then, off the back of not playing much at Preston and going into a few games in close succession, I had a few niggles and was then in and out a bit,” he says.

“That was frustrating. I’d have liked to have played more.”

Shortly after the loan expired, he was released by Preston after three seasons.

“This is my second time as a free agent. The first time was during Covid and I did a month or so’s training on my own.

“Being at PFA pre-season is so much better. It’s not an easy place sometimes, to be on your own, and to have the support of the staff and players who are in a similar boat is ideal. I’m now looking for a clean slate and I’m excited for what’s next.

“Getting back to the Championship is the aim, 100 per cent, but time will tell where I’m going to be. I’ll see what options I’ve got and see where I get to in the coming weeks.

“I just want to keep building. In the last year or two, I’ve not played as much as the three or four years before that, so it’s about trying to get back to that.

“I’m getting on a little bit, but I still feel fit and well, so I want to play for as long as I can and enjoy it and hopefully have more success.”

Vassell: I’ve got a new hunger after difficult return to the US

Former Northern Ireland international Kyle Vassell returned to England earlier this year following time spent in the US with Colorado Springs Switchbacks of the USL Championship.

He only played 10 times for the club, however, with the last coming all the way back in November 2025.

“I got back home in April, so I’ve not been in a professional environment for months. I really needed this [PFA pre-season] so was delighted to get going straight away. I’m trying to get back in the league, so I’m using it as a showcase.

“I’ve never had a period like that out of the game. It was a bad situation. We went over to America to try and win that league, but it just wasn’t the right environment. I just had to get out as it wasn’t working for me.

“It was incredibly difficult to deal with, especially when my wife and kids were really happy there. They loved it and my wife wanted to stay, but we had a conversation and I said, for my career, I had to go home.

“I probably shouldn’t have gone back to the US. It’s probably the only regret of my career.”

He says “never say never” to going overseas again, but at 33, and with his family settled, Vassell is targeting a first return to the Sky Bet EFL since 2021/22, when he played for Cheltenham.

“All I want to do is, ideally, get back into the English game. I just want to get in and get another promotion again. I’m dying for one. I want to get in the building and drag a team up the league somehow.

“I want to be at the best level, the best club I can play for and make me and my family proud again. I know I’m at the tail-end of my career now, so I just want to make the most of it and enjoy all of it.

“I wasted a lot of time in my 20s probably doing the wrong things, probably not living as well as I could, but now I do everything right. I’m grateful for the career I’ve had, but I still want more. I feel like I’ve got a new hunger.”

Johnson: I’m 35 but I still feel like a kid in my body!

Marvin Johnson has been out of contract since January, when he left Port Vale upon the expiry of the short-term contract he signed at Vale Park in October 2025.

He played only seven times during that short spell, but only missed five Sky Bet Championship games at Sheffield Wednesday in 2024/25.

“It was a bit up and down last season. There were a few options last summer that I looked at – and it’s easy to say now I should have taken,” he says.

“I went to Port Vale with Darren Moore, but then he got let go and I walked away from that and wanted to get myself in the best possible position this pre-season to kick on again.

“I’m very fit and I pride myself on that so, over the last six months or so it’s been one-to-one coaching, gym sessions, staying on top of it. I’d never let myself get in a bad enough condition anyway, but it’s about staying on the ball, keeping the habits good and keeping the mindset right.

“I’m feeling good, fit, sharp. I was ready to come in from day one. I’d already done my work for the off-season and I’m ready to go.

“I want to play at the best level I can, the highest level I can. I’ve still got a lot more to give – I still feel like a young kid in my body. I stay fit and I’d always back my ability.”

Tom McIntyre: I’ve not settled since leaving Reading in 2024

“I just haven’t really settled anywhere, which I’ve found difficult. I’d been at Reading for a long time, then went to Portsmouth and, in my first game, I broke my ankle, so that was a shocker to start like that when I thought I could really kick on and get a bit of rhythm with my football.

“From there, various things happened and I came back the next season, picked up another little injury, then didn’t start the season, so I was playing catch-up. I played 10 games back-to-back in a team that was struggling. It was just tough, I got judged off that and that was it, really. That was my Portsmouth career pretty much gone.

“I’ve been on loan various places, but they haven’t really worked. Charlton got promoted and were winning every week, so it was a hard team to get into. At Bradford, it was a difficult situation because they were doing so well. Then I signed a six-month deal at Aberdeen in January and picked up an injury after four or five games when I felt I was getting into a rhythm.

“It’s been a tough two years. I was playing at a certain level two or three years ago and, when you start to slip down, you start to ask a lot of questions. But you’ve got to be a bit kinder to yourself. I know everyone has got their sob story, but there have been a few things that have been tough, outside of football as well.

“I just want to get in somewhere, get settled and really get back to playing my best football because I haven’t changed as a player, I’ve just had some unfortunate things that have gone on, where I still think I’ve got loads to give and I still back my quality. I’m just looking to get in somewhere and do my stuff.

“One hundred per cent I’ve got a point to prove. I’m desperate to just get a bit of continuity to my football.”

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