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

The PFA’s pre-season training camp for free agents is back this summer.

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

Last year, participants included John Swift – who went on to sign for Portsmouth – and Angus Gunn, who signed for Nottingham Forest then went on 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 Fernando Foresteri, Jonny Williams, Will Keane, Kyle Vassell, Marvin Johnson and Tom McIntyre – who are speeding up to find their next clubs…

Foresteri: I want to play in England again – and I can play for two more years

Fernando Foresteri left Sheffield Wednesday in June 2020 and has since played for Udinese in Italy, Johor Darul Tajim in Malaysia and AEL Limassol in Cyprus – but is looking to return to English football.

“It’s my first time as a free agent. I’m 36 years old and I understand the situation, but the more important thing is that I feel great playing,” he said. Sky Sports.

“It was different. I had a great experience, but you realize how much you miss English football. 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’ve started my coaching badge, so maybe it’ll be easier for me to play here. That’s my focus, but it’s nice to play another two years.”

Foresteri spent over 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 tough competition. I went to JDT, which is a good club with a lot of ambition.

“It’s not that I was very good, because I was at the best club in the country. It was like Manchester City here. You have 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’s not easy. You have to push yourself.”

Williams: I want to emulate the senior professionals who have helped me

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

It was his longest spell at one club since Crystal Palace, where he started and stayed between 2002 and 2019.

“This is my first appearance out of contract, since I was about eight years old, so I’m blessed that the PFA pre-season only started three years ago and the timing is perfect for me,” he said.

“Otherwise, I’d just train at home in Kent. I’m one for training, but it’s hard to train when nobody’s watching.

“I got a heads-up from Gillingham in the January window about keeping an eye on the summer. We’d fallen way down the league and people were starting to plan for next season. It’s just because you get a head start mentally. In a way, it was helpful.

“It’s been difficult for me to be honest. We started every season with really high expectations and on paper, our team was really good. A lot of it is margin in football, but it shows what happens if you don’t get the right mix and that consistency.

“Honestly, I think I needed a change and the change came at the right time. I’m excited to think, wherever I go, I can help the team and help the people around me.

“I was very fortunate when I was young to have a leadership team like Paddy McCarthy, Mile Jedinak, Damien Delaney, Julian Sperney. They were top professionals and I’m stepping into the zone where I’m going to be that guy, so, wherever I go, I want to be that guy, helping everyone around me to step up and conquer that challenge.

“I missed a lot of football from 17 to 22/23, so as long as I can play, I want to enjoy it as long as I can.”

Keen targets 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, coming off the back of not playing a lot at Preston and going into a few games in a row, I had a few niggles and then I was a bit inside,” he said.

“It was disappointing. I would have liked to play 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 trained on my own for a month or so.

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

“The aim is to get back to the Championship, 100 per cent, but time will tell where I am. I will see what options I have and where I can go in the coming weeks.

“I just want to keep building. The last year or two, I haven’t played as much as the previous three or four years, so trying to get back into it.

“I’m progressing a bit, but I’m still fit and feeling good, so I want to play as long as I can and enjoy it and hopefully have more success.”

Vassell: I found a new appetite after returning to the United States

Former Northern Ireland international Kyle Vassell returned to England earlier this year after spending time in the US with the USL Championship’s Colorado Springs Switchbacks.

He has played just 10 times for the club, but last came back in November 2025.

“I came back home in April, so I haven’t been in a professional environment for a few months. I really needed it (PFA pre-season) so was happy to go straight away. I’m trying to get back into the league, so I’m using it as a showcase.

“I’ve never had time outside the game. It was a bad situation. We went to America to try to win that league, but it wasn’t the right atmosphere. I just had to go out because 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 have to go home.

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

He said he would “never say never” to going abroad again, but at 33, and settled in with his family, Vassell is aiming for his first return to the Sky Bet EFL since 2021/22, when he played for Cheltenham.

“What 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 into the league somehow.

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

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

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

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

He played just seven times in 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 now it’s easy to say that I should have taken,” he said.

“I went to Port Vale with Darren Moore, but then he was let go and I went from there and wanted to put myself in the best possible position to start again this pre-season.

“I’m very fit and I pride myself, so for the last six months it’s been one-on-one coaching, gym sessions, staying on top of it. I’ll never let myself get in bad enough shape, but it’s staying on the ball, keeping the habits right and the mindset right.

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

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

Tom McIntyre: I haven’t settled since leaving Reading in 2024

“I haven’t really settled down anywhere, which has been difficult for me. I was at Reading for a long time, then I went to Portsmouth and, in my first game, I broke my ankle, so it was a shock to start like that when I thought I could really kick on and get some rhythm with my football.

“From there, different things happened and I came back the following season, picked up another minor injury, then the season didn’t start, 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 the trial and that was it. That was pretty much the end of my Portsmouth career.

“I went on loan at different places, but they didn’t really work. Charlton were promoted and winning every week, so it was difficult to get into the team. 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 after four or five games I picked up an injury when I felt I was going to Thailand.

“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, you start asking a lot of questions. But you have to be kind to yourself. I know everyone’s had their cry, but there are things outside of football that have been difficult.

“I just want to go somewhere, settle down and really go back to playing my best football because I haven’t changed as a player, I’ve had some unfortunate things that have gone, where I still think I have a lot of load and I’m still getting my quality back. I just want to go somewhere and do my things.

“I’ve got a point to prove 100 per cent. I’m desperate to get some consistency in my football.”