What happened to the winner of Football Icon 2 after he won a Chelsea contract in 2007?

Becoming a professional footballer is the dream career for many amateur players around the world.

The glitz, the glamour, the insane salaries and let’s not forget, getting to play the beautiful game every day – it’s a lifestyle that many can only fantasise about.

But becoming a pro footballer might be one of the hardest things in the world.

The small number of players who actually make it lay bare the grim reality that there is a greater chance of someone getting hit by a meteorite than becoming a footballer.

Yet, some players do make it to the top level or at least get a glimpse of what life is like inside a Premier League football club.

One of those is former Chelsea player Carl Magnay who has had a rather unconventional footballing journey.

Back in 2007, Magnay appeared on the Sky One television show Football Icon, which gave unsigned players between the ages of 16 and 18 a chance to win a six-month contract with the then-Premier League champions, Chelsea.

Akin to the X Factor, a group of young hopefuls attended a series of merciless football trials that would whittle out the best players from the bunch.

Magnay happened to be one of them, and speaking to The Athletic, he recounted his amazing story.

“I remember thinking: ‘This is quite brutal’,” he said, reminiscing his first trial for the show.

“You stood in front of a big telly, on this big ‘X’ the production crew had put on the floor.

“There was no one coaching wise to actually talk to you about how you did.

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“You just had to wait for the screen to flash. It would either show a green tick if you’d made it, a big cross if you’d failed or a question mark if you were close and still to be