Former Bristol City academy prospect Vince Harper has been called up to England's C 25-man squad ahead of their game with Wales later this month.
The 22-year-old made the move to National League side Eastleigh in September 2021 having failed to break into City's first-team squad. His development has gone from strength to strength by playing regularly under head coach Lee Bradbury with his side pushing for promotion in sixth spot.
Having juggled playing left-back and left-wing throughout the season, Eastleigh's run of six clean sheets in their last seven matches has contributed to a call-up from England manager Paul Fairclough.
Harper's pathway into the senior set-up at the Robins was blocked following the emergence of Cam Pring, George Nurse and Jay Dasilva. Having come through the academy, Harper had loan spells with Gloucester, Weston-super-Mare and Bath City before making a permanent move to Chippenham.
City's Head of Recruitment and former pathway manager Brian Tinnion spoke in 2021 about Harper's move to Eastleigh and the opportunity for his career to kick on. He told the Daily Echo: "Unfortunately for him here we didn’t have a pathway with Cam Pring, George Nurse at the time and Jay Dasilva all around 21/22 years of age.
“We didn’t want to keep Vincent here just for the sake of keeping him without a pathway, but he’s got a great opportunity at a football club that develops young players really well, hence why we’ve sent Joe Low there.
“Hopefully he can get some more game time and keep stepping up the leagues, which is what we always hope for players who leave here, that they go on and have really good careers. We have a real closeness here and we want them to succeed when they leave here.”
Harper was turned down by Cheltenham Town and Wycombe Wanderers following trial periods and therefore dropped down into non-league to reignite his career. He spent just a month at Chippenham before impressing in a pre-season match against Eastleigh which encouraged them to make a move.
His brother, Ashley, was also on the books at Bristol City before moving to Weston-super-Mare and St Albans City.
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