Travis Hernes is finding his first season as a Newcastle United player very surreal.
The 18-year-old signed for Newcastle United on transfer deadline day last summer, with the teenager arriving from Shrewsbury Town.
The club have high hopes for the young Norwegian, who featured heavily in the Magpies’ UEFA Youth League campaign earlier this season. Hernes featured in five of Newcastle’s six games, scoring one goal and getting two assists.
He has also enjoyed some time with Eddie Howe and the senior side, training with the Newcastle United first-team on multiple occasions.
That will have been a surreal experience for Hernes, who has admitted that rubbing shoulders with some of Newcastle’s superstars has been ‘absolutely sick’.
Travis Hernes says Newcastle first-team training ‘doesn’t feel real’
Hernes has spoke to Norwegian outlet TV2 about training with the Newcastle first-team already, with TV2 noting that he was ‘particularly impressed’ with Alexander Isak and Sandro Tonali.
“When I was called up for first-team training, it was absolutely sick to think that I have played with all these guys here at FIFA, and they just have no idea who I am,” he said.
“It doesn’t feel real when you’re in the dressing room with Champions League footballers, somehow. But you just have to get used to it.”
First-team exposure will help Newcastle teenager grow
As Hernes says, it must be mad at the age of 18 to go from being at a League One club to calling megastars like Isak and Tonali your teammates. They are huge names in European football, and their arrivals on Tyneside show just how much the club has grown in recent years.
It will be daunting for the young players, but it will also help them improve. Hernes will benefit from any first-team exposure he gets, but it must be even more beneficial when you consider the calibre of players he is suddenly working with.
Training alongside Tonali must be great for Hernes, as he is also a centre-midfielder. Imagine the things you can learn from the Italy international, as well as Bruno Guimaraes!
And when Hernes goes home, he uses the same players on FIFA – or EA FC as it’s now known!
But he is getting used to calling them teammates, as he bids to eventually play alongside them in black and white.
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