FORMER Taunton Town full-back Cameron Evans has revealed he found an unorthodox route back into the professional game through LinkedIn.
The 23-year-old signed a two-year deal with Newport County in July after a successful trial.
However, he owes a debt of gratitude to business and employment-focused social media platform LinkedIn which allowed him to contact the League Two club’s chair man directly.
“I haven’t got an agent, the trial came about through LinkedIn. I got in touch with the chairman Huw Jenkins myself and he responded,” Evans told BBC Sport Wales. “I was happy just to get a response if I’m honest.
“He obviously knew me from my days at Swansea, he looked over my profile and invited me down for a trial, I was chuffed. I’d been told about LinkedIn and that it could be a good chance to get your profile out there, as clubs can use it to look at you, so I always kept my profile updated.
“I’ve always looked at Newport and thought it would be a great place to play my football, so when the chairman came in I fired a message over, we got talking, he offered me a trial and here we are.”
Evans, who came through the youth system at Swansea, admitted he had been desperate to return to full-time football. “They were a great group of lads at Taunton, it was a great changing room to be a part of and the manager was brilliant but, obviously, part-time football isn’t where I wanted to be. That was always in the back of my head,” he said.
“I had to go into work as well with my father, I was a dryliner. I’d be working all day on site then travelling down to Taunton for a night game or training.
“I don’t mind a graft or being at work but it was always in the back of my mind: ‘I should be training now, I should be kicking a ball around and playing football’.
“You get people saying to you that you should start thinking about your future and to get a career in work, it was tough at times.”
Evans would run around the parks of Swansea in a bid to give himself the best chance possible of making it back to the pro game.
He added: “I’ve always backed myself. Some days you think to yourself: ‘it’s winter, it’s dark and I’m at work’, or you may go on a losing spell with Taunton and it can play on your mind.
“I was stubborn with it, I always said to myself I would get back into fulltime football.
“That was always the goal, I always had that focus. Obviously, you have your bad days where things are tough but I was always determined and I knew if I kept at it, that I would get another chance.”
Evans has been a regular starter for Nelson Jardim’s men and is relishing being full-time.
“I just want to play as many games as I can, I don’t mind if that’s at left-back, centre-back or right-back, I just want to be on the pitch,” he said.
