Former Hibs kid Nick Weightman speaks on his strong friendship with Steven Fletcher formed at Easter Road and hi sliding doors moment at club

Duo are best of friends after going totally different ways after life in Edinburgh

From left, Nick Weightman, Ross Chisholm, Ryan Pow and Steven Fletcher during a photocall for a Hibs Under-17s strip back in 2003.

THEY once shared a Hibs dressing room – now they are thousands of miles apart.

But while the careers of former Easter Road youth prospects Nick Weightman and Steven Fletcher have gone in completely different directions, they remain close friends to this day.

Back in 2004, a 16-year-old Nick was making waves as a prolific striker in the youth teams at Easter Road, starring alongside Fletcher and earning international recognition at the same time.

Fast forward 16 years and while one made it to the English Premier League with Burnley, Wolves and Sunderland, moving for millions in transfer fees and earning 33 caps for Scotland, the other has settled across the Atlantic, enjoying a successful career in banking, married to his American wife Erica and starting a family this year, with their son Callum born this January.

One benefit of the current lockdown is that it has enabled the old Hibs team mates to catch-up on their long-distance relationship.

Nick, who hails from Lanark, said: “I’m playing Call Of Duty with him almost every day at the moment. The time difference makes it a little challenging, but we’re on group chats and everything too.

“From about 12 we played on the same Hibs team all the way through. Despite our different paths we’ve just kept our friendship going – we’ve been on trips together, at each other’s weddings, been groomsmen and so on.

“I find it funny now that he’s texting me about things and then I read it in the paper, the speculation about transfers and all that.

“I remember growing up thinking Premier League footballers were really cool, and it is cool, but they are just like me and you – it’s just funny now to see it from that perspective.”

While Fletcher broke into the Hibs’ first team aged 16, and the rest is history, Weightman was released after failing to make the breakthrough, which proved the catalyst for a life-changing decision to uproot to the USA to start a soccer scholarship at the University of Cincinnati.

Nick said: “At the time when I was at Hibs I thought if I worked hard I would make it in Scotland, but it didn’t quite work out that way. All I cared about at that time was being a professional footballer.

“It was a surprise when I left Hibs and although I had options to join other clubs, the money just wasn’t there. At that point one of my friends had been to the US and told me about it – the more I looked at it the more interested I was.”

On becoming a student athlete in the US, Nick added: “The facilities at the University of Cincinnati (UC) – I’d never experienced anything like it, Murray Park was as close as I’d seen in Scotland. It was like the level of Premier League in terms of facilities and process.”

A Bachelor of Business Administration, Finance at UC, Nick’s current role is senior vice-president, Commercial Lending at Gorham Savings Bank in Maine and he admits he wonders what life may have become were it not for his sliding doors moment.

He continued: “I was one of those guys at Hibs who didn’t really do well away from home so I was worried about going to the US and not being able to handle it – but the difference in me as a person going from being a young kid in his shell to being comfortable walking into boardrooms, it’s all attributed to me having to come over here and having to live my life on my own.

“I sit back and think ‘I wonder where my life would be if Hibs had kept me for another year or two and none of this had happened’. Overall, I’m so lucky and I’ve got to appreciate that Hibs releasing me, especially at the time they did, gave me a chance to come over and do all this. It’s made my life what it is today, to be honest.”

Nick was speaking in an interview with FirstPoint USA, a scholarship agency who are offering professional footballers across the UK released from their clubs as a result of the coronavirus crisis will be offered free support.

FirstPoint USA, the biggest contributor of student sporting talent to the US market globally, has made the offer to young professional players who may find themselves without a club within the next few months.

The move has been backed by football figures Owen Coyle, Ally McCoist and Hibs boss Jack Ross.

Andrew Kean, founder and CEO of FirstPoint USA, said: “Nick’s story is inspirational and shows just what’s possible from securing a US scholarship. “Now we want to help more young players enjoy the same opportunities.”

FirstPoint works with 2,500 colleges and universities in the US which are currently recruiting talent for 2020/21.

International students are estimated to add $44bn in annual revenue to the US market, therefore the demand from the States to unearth unsigned talent is greater than ever.

Previous examples of FirstPoint scholar-athletes who have made the journey to America include Max Todd (Hibs), Leon Jones (Hearts), Adam and Jordan Wilson (Rangers), Ed Brand (Chelsea), Ben Williams (Liverpool) and Chris Edwards (Partick Thistle).

Jamie Vardy is another former FirstPoint client, although he remained in the UK.