Standing on the touchline at just 19 years of age, Conrad Ambursley was getting set to make his senior debut.

“We were 2-1 down, so I just wanted to get us back in the game,” Ambursley said a couple of weeks later. “I wanted to try and do what I could to help. That was it really.

“I always get butterflies, but it wasn’t really any nerves. I was just quite excited to get going.”

For the young Englishman, that debut was taking place over 5,000 miles away from his home.

The football pitch was home, though, and has been for as long as he can remember.

“From when I was a baby, I always had a football,” Ambursley said. “My dad said I was too energetic, so put me into that.”

Growing up as an Arsenal fan in Newham and Dagenham in East London, Ambursley started off in the grassroots game. He went on to have lengthy trials with Tottenham Hotspur, before eventually ending up signing with Charlton Athletic, an EFL club also within the city.

But at 16, when academy players transition to a full-time scholarship with their team, he was let go by the club.

“I didn’t get offered a scholarship [at Charlton], which obviously was quite upsetting, but it’s part of the process,” Ambursley said. “Rejections happen to everybody. It was a blessing in disguise, because I went to Coventry and ended up getting my first professional contract there.”

Coventry was a couple of hours up the M1 motorway, but it wasn’t just a change of scenery for the youngster, but a change of position on the field too. Originally a midfielder during his spell at Charlton, Ambursley was moved out wide onto the flank.

“To be honest, it’s easier playing on the wing, I think,” he said. “Midfield, you’ve got to be 360. The game is all around you. When you’re a winger, you’ve got your job. You know what you need to do. You have to create chances, that’s the beauty of it.”

Ambursley featured for Coventry’s under 18s and under 21s as he earned a full professional contract a year ago. Yet he never broke through to the first team. His American-based agent ended up having a call with Phoenix Rising, and from there, the club’s youngest new addition was found.

“It was definitely an opportunity to grow, to get first team experience, which obviously as a young player, that’s what everyone wants,” Ambursley said. “The project here is unbelievable in terms of developing players, giving them opportunities to fail as well. Giving me a chance to actually make mistakes and learn from them, which is what I’m working with with the coaching staff at the minute, and it’s really positive.”

Having been in Phoenix for several weeks now, there are still some things that he’s getting used to. By his own admission, he didn’t expect the temperature to be quite as challenging as it is, and the allure of food from back home — “If I’m being specific, Nando’s. That’s what I’m missing the most” — may make him a little homesick at times.

Yet that is not the biggest challenge. While Ambursley had perhaps grown used to being away from his family in pursuit of a footballing career, the move to Phoenix was a bit of an escalation.

“I was living away from home anyways, because obviously Coventry and London were not next door to each other,” Ambursley said. “But they’d see me at least once a month, once every six weeks, but now it’s completely different and I’m on the other side of the planet so it’s a bit of a stretch.

“They saw the opportunity, and they just wanted me to take it really, to just grow and do what I love doing.”

Even from afar, Ambursley still calls home every day, and his mum is set to visit him next week.

“They’re so supportive, and they try and watch it, tune into any of the games that they can, which is crazy considering that we play at 3 a.m. back over in England,” he said.

That first game was just around two weeks ago, and while Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah had been praising his technical ability and describing him as “a very intelligent young man” and “a student of the game” in the run-up to it, he also tried to lessen some of the pressure on the youngster.

“I don’t think we should put a huge expectation on him to come and say he’s our savior,” Kah said before Ambursley’s debut. “No, he’s a kid. He’s 19 years old. He’s going to be part of our growth and development, but also he’s somebody that we know can provide us something. “

And he did provide something, on debut, with a cross that resulted in the winning own goal over Monterey Bay.

“I think the fans could see what he’s about,” Rising defender Daniel Flores said. “He’s very direct. He likes going at players. He’s a good player for us, and fits us very well in the team.”

In the weeks since, Kah has descibed being “happy with what [Ambursley]’s given us, so we’ve just got to continue to give him minutes and minutes so that he can continue to grow.”

According to Ambursley, that growth, which was the entire reason he wanted to come to Phoenix in the first place, has come from the breadth of the club’s coaching staff.

“I learn from Pa the mental side of the game, the real competitive edge that he’s got,” Ambursley said. “Me and Vik [Virk] go through so many attacking details, but also Darnell [King], being a defender himself, he can tell me as a full-back what they don’t like.

“All of those things combined makes them a really good team for me.”

Now, two games into his time in Phoenix, Ambursley has already caught the eye as a player with the potential to go further.

He may not be, as Kah described a few weeks ago, the midseason acquisition that proves to be the club’s savior for the season. But if he can keep contributing to the Phoenix attack as the season comes to its close, he’ll win over more than enough fans in the Arizona desert.

“I want to develop,” Ambursley said. “I want to get experience. I want to be able to try and develop my game into what I know it can become with the help of the coaches and learn as much as possible really, and ultimately, I want to help the team win games.”

Top image: Ashley Orellana / Phoenix Rising FC