When you started playing the game on the streets of the west African nation Liberia under hard-nosed coaches, he said, Australian methods don’t faze you.

‘‘It was a good experience and harder than what it was here, too,’’ George said of his African training.

‘‘There, they train us very hard, and here we just do training drills, but we used to do sprinting 24/7 [in Liberia].’’

So well did George cope with the Sydney FC camp, which was also attended by a group of enthusiastic junior players from the Illawarra, he has been identified as one of 20 athletes the A-League club will keep tabs on.

The Bellambi under 16s talent was joined by younger cousin Emmanuel Kamara in the squad. Kamara plays for the Figtree Junior Football Club.

The camp’s attendees were granted access to Sydney’s coaching staff which included former English Premier League players Ian Crook and Hayden Foxe while also mixing it with players including Brett Emerton and Nicky Carle.

‘‘The best part about it was I got to play with the professional players which was good,’’ George, a winger equally adept at playing striker, said.

The 20 identified players were then summoned back for a fourth day of professional assessment and testing. They will be invited for future sessions with the A-League heavyweights, while Sydney FC scouts will attend their matches.

Illawarra Football Academy director Mark Tyssen has provided free scholarships for both George and Kamara since they arrived in Wollongong.

He hopes to create further pathways for Illawarra juniors to forge professional careers.

‘‘I am in discussion with them [Sydney FC] about getting a camp down here for local kids to be identified who can’t travel up to Sydney,’’ he said.

‘‘We’ve got about 8000 registered kids down here ... and they’re more than happy to get down here and provide some more opportunities.’’