Christian Burgess

Burgess set for deal with Championship outfit.

Wanstead & Snaresbrook Cricket Club’s first-team player Christian Burgess is on the brink of signing a professional contract to play football for Championship side Middlesborough.

The 20-year-old Hainault resident looks set to change codes after impressing Middlesbrough boss Tony Mowbray in trials earlier this year and is understood to be awaiting the results of a medical.

“There are still some discussions to be had, but I would like to think we could offer him an opportunity,” Mowbray said ahead of the medical last week. “I would like to think we could give him a chance and bring him in for a year or so and see how he does.

“You’ve got to put it into context that he’s just a young boy out of university. He will fit into that group of young centre-halves who are fighting for a place, lads like David Atkinson, Adam Jackson and Ben Gibson.

“Supporters shouldn’t expect to see him in the first team for a while, he’s chosen a path of education and yet he has talent. There’s talent there, there’s game understanding there, there’s physicality there, he’s a very intelligent boy.”

Burgess, a second-year student at the University of Birmingham, featured in Wanstead’s six-wicket defeat of Shenfield on May 26.

Batting at number three behind opener John Chambers and skipper Arfan Akram, he scored 26 runs to help secure an emphatic victory.

“I’m looking forward to the challenge that full-time football poses, and will be doing my upmost to make my mark on the club and get in and around the first team,” said Burgess, who has played with Arsenal, West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur at youth level, and also for semi-pro side Bishop’s Stortford.