A YOUNG football star has the world at his feet after playing for Wales and rubbing shoulders with Wrexham's famous owners.

Cai Lloyd Evans, 17, lives in Bangor but plays football for the Wrexham AFC youth team.

He was just recently a member of the 20-strong Wales Schools Under 18 squad who took part in the 2023 Roma Caput Mundi tournament in Italy.

Each squad member was required to raise sponsorship for the Italian trip and Pendine Park was happy to chip in via the Pendine Arts and Community Trust along with Huws Gray to make Cai's dream a reality.

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Cai, who is studying sports psychology at Coleg Menai in Llangefni has been a member of the Wrexham Youth set up for the past seven years travelling regularly to the Racecourse ground for training and playing games in the National League Alliance Under-19's Division H.

Mum Sandra often takes Cai to the training sessions and regularly watches him play.

So far this season Cai has played six games in the League and three in cup competitions.

"I enjoy watching football and I am so proud that he was selected to play for Wales in this tournament," she said.

He has also met Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, the Hollywood actors, who purchased Wrexham AFC two years ago.

"They came to the training ground and we were all presented to them and we shook hands. They asked us about the games we played and seemed very interested," Cai said.

Ryan and Rob's influence, said Cai, has been significant at the club and standards and expectations had been raised considerably in the past 18 months.

The Italy trip was the first time Cai had been abroad in his footballing career but he’s determined it won't be his last.

He said: "It was a really good trip and a great experience."

The strapping six-foot centre back played in all three games played by the team during the week-long UEFA recognised tournament.

According to Cai, eight international teams were split into two groups with Wales lined up with Canada, San Marino and Lazio, a local team from Rome. 

"We had an opportunity to visit the Stadio Olympico where the Italian international team play their matches as well as being the ground for Lazio and Roma. The stadium was used for the 1960 Olympic Games and has these huge statues all around it.

"We saw the changing rooms and went out and had a look at the pitch and had some photos taken. They were preparing the ground for a match so we weren't able to go on the grass for a kick about," he added.