The Trial File David Abunaw · 2015–2020

Five trials.Offers in three countries.No contract.

I said no five times. Here is what I learned, with the receipts.

A 30-page guide for American players who want a professional trial and keep being told to find an agent.

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David Abunaw in a white match kit, boots in hand, at the side of a pitch in Germany
Germany, January 2018 · on trial with SC Wiedenbrück
The whole record
5Trials
5Times I said no
60Cold emails
10Replies
5Agents
0Contracts signed

A player who signed usually knows one door, which is his own. I knocked on all of them and kept every email and message. This guide shows which doors opened, what each one cost and what was behind it.

Trials and training in the file
SC WiedenbrückTulsa RoughnecksNew York CosmosStumptown AthleticDJK TuS HordelNew York Red Bulls U23New England Revolution U23
Is this real?

Two things I didn’t write

The club’s homepageJan 2018
Screenshot of SC Wiedenbrück's website. The lead photo shows a player in a white kit striking a ball above the headline Niederlage mit knappem Personal.
A German fourth-division club’s website the week of my trial. That is me in the lead photo. The headline: “Defeat with a thin squad.” We lost 2–0.
A German agent reports back5 Dec 2017
Two messages. The second reads: They also looked at you videos. Their opinion: 4th league. So we will se what we can find.
A fellow referee put me in touch with an agent in Germany, who passed my film on. This was his message back. Then he stopped replying.
Who it’s for

This is for you if

30 pages

What’s inside

Plus five one-page tools to use the next day:

Readiness audit60-day planPre-flight checkOffer testBudget sheet
From the guide

Three of the receipts

The offer15 Jan 2018
WhatsApp messages in German between David and his agent about a contract offer of 700 euros a month.
My agent, on a German club’s contract offer. “You can get a maximum of 700 euros net.” My reply: “I don’t think I can survive on 450 a month.”
The yes that came too late8–9 Mar 2020
WhatsApp messages. One reads: They said they'll sign you. David's reply the next morning: Things don't seem set, so I have decided to return home. I just can't miss these bills.
A club said it would sign me. Nobody could tell me how I would earn. I flew home two days later.
The message that got a trial17 Nov 2017
A Messenger message from David to a coach that begins: Hello Coach, I'm not sure if you'll remember me but I used to referee your soccer games when you coached youth soccer.
My first message to a USL head coach. Two months and one follow-up later, he said yes in 16 minutes.
Before you buy

What it won’t promise

David on a floodlit pitch in Bochum, Germany, in training gear
Bochum, 2020
David sitting on the Brooklyn Bridge with the Manhattan skyline behind him
New York, now
Who wrote it

I’m David Abunaw

I played Division I college soccer, spent five years trying to sign a professional contract, and never signed one.

Today I’m a sports and entertainment lawyer. Before writing this I went back through every email and message from those years and checked my memory against the record. Where the two disagreed, the record won.

The Trial File · 30-page PDF · instant download
$27

Nine sections, five tools and the receipts.

Get the guide · $27
Will this get me a trial?

No guide can. It shows which doors are real, what they cost and what to say, so you stop waiting on an agent.

Do you share your agent’s contact?

No. I show how I found him and what I wrote, which is how you will find yours.

I’m already in Europe. Is it still useful?

Yes. The Germany section covers how trial training works, the signing windows and the paperwork.

One player’s experience from 2015 to 2020, checked against the rules as they stood in October 2026. Not legal advice, and I am not acting as an agent.

The Trial File30-page PDF · instant download Get it · $27