Luis Binks, a teenager from Gillingham has spoken of his dream move to the MLS.
In these terribly sad and frustrating times we think we may have come across a story that will bring a little cheer to anyone who cares about football.
Luis Binks a young central defender from Gillingham heads across the Atlantic to begin a career in Major League Soccer playing for Montreal Impact managed by Theirry Henry.
We first caught up with Luis Binks when the young man was due to play against his hometown club for Spurs under 23s side in the Checkatrade Trophy a couple seasons ago. Now the eighteen-year-old has left Spurs to try out in the MLS.
For Luis, who attended Twydall Primary and the Howard School in Gillingham as well as representing the County and Medway district, the move came as a surprise as he admitted to KSN.
He told us, “The move to Montreal came about as me and the Gaffer here have the same agent. So, I think my agent introduced me to the gaffer and he must have liked me. The managers and players at Spurs were surprised as I’d been there so long, but sometimes you need to move on to move up.”
Luis had been a regular in the Spurs youth campaigns in Europe in the past couple of seasons – experience that you think would give young Binks an advantage going into his new career.
But Luis doesn’t seem to think that that will be the case as he admitted, “Not really, as I’ve come into a men’s environment and most of the players I will come up against now are South American and we never really played teams from those countries.”
“Add to that, the intensity is a lot higher in games than what I’ve been used to. Also coming into a men’s changing room environment was a lot different to what I’d previously experienced as now I’m mixing daily with players who have played at the top of their game, and I will try to learn from them as much as possible!”
Speaking on how he has found working with Thierry Henry, Luis added “He’s been great with me personally, as I’ve made the move at such a young age, and he also made big moves at a young age, he knows what it’s like. He’s someone I feel I can learn a lot from because of what he has achieved in the game. To work with someone like him is brilliant.”
“My personal goals for the season are to just work hard and stay in the team; learn as much as I can from the coaches and players and just develop myself as a player and a person. If the good performances come, I’d like to think I’d be in with a chance of winning “Rookie of the Year”.
Luis will try to keep up with events at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Priestfield (where mum Jo still works), but it won’t be easy as he explained.
“It’s not been easy because of the time difference, sometimes I’m waking up and the 12:30 kick off has started. Other times we’re training when the Champions League is on but I follow Gills on “iFollow” when I can.”
“I try not to miss a game as usually I can wake up and watch them before we have our pre-match meal on a Saturday”.
Whilst Luis faces a truly incredible season when the MLS restarts after the Coronavirus pandemic passes, his immediate challenges aren’t that different from the challenges we all currently face.
He said “It’s not been easy as I’m a young lad and it’s my first experience away but I feel my performances have been decent so that has made me settle in a lot easier and also the boys here made me feel at home from day one which helped me massively.”
“The season being suspended has been very hard as I can’t go out or can’t get home to see family, so I’m stuck in a hotel on my own but I know this will make me stronger as a player and person”.
Once the MLS restarts, KSN will follow Luis’ season and you can too as the Impacts games are normally on sports network TSN and of course there is also regular “live” match coverage across the SKY Sports platform every weekend of the season.