Nottingham born goalkeeper Luke Gibbons and defender Tom Shaw from Sheffield have both been offered four-year academic/sports scholarships at top US Colleges.

Luke has been accepted by Lenoir Rhyne College in North Carolina, whilst Tom will be joining Daemen College in Buffalo, New York State.

Both boys have been part of the Mansfield Town Centre of Excellence for some time and have completed two-year scholarships.

Whilst at the Stags, Luke gained Welsh U17s international honours. It was however very difficult for both players as the Stags have no reserve team and as such boys had to be good enough to make the step up from youth football into the Football League.

Both of them have strong academic backgrounds. Luke in particular is a straight As student, with grades that would qualify him for Harvard!

Consequently they decided that their future could lie in the highly competitive US College soccer, so they contacted local US Scholarship Consultants – Sporting Chance USA who are based in Blidworth.

Their head sport consultant, Phil Selby, then liaised with the Stags head of youth Dave Jervis and, following excellent references from the Stags, both boys were quickly marketed to US Colleges.

The fact that both boys are only 18 years of age means that after a four-year degree programme in the States, they will still be young enough to have another shot at the professional game, either back here in the UK or in the USA.

They will be training six days per week while at college and will have a hectic games schedule whilst in season. This will ensure that they keep to maximum fitness.

The big plus factor is that both boys will have excellent degree qualifications to fall back on.

Sporting Chance USA’s Phil Selby stated: “Both boys will thoroughly enjoy the life experience they will get whilst in the USA.

“They will play easily as much football as they ever did at the Stags plus financially, they will be paying only a fraction of the cost of what it might have cost had they opted to go to a UK university, as US scholarships include all tuition fees, accommodation, food and insurance.

“We would recommend that athletes from all sporting backgrounds consider the possibility of a US College Scholarship.”

Both Luke and Tom will fly out to meet their new team mates and join in pre-season training in early August.