A-League Men: Perth Glory young gun Jaylan Pearman preparing for final game before expected overseas move

Jaylan Pearman has spent almost a decade with Perth Glory and has risen from young academy prospect to burgeoning star. With the talented teenager preparing to play what might be his final game in a purple shirt on Saturday night, Pearman admitted it would be an emotional goodbye to HBF Park. The Young Socceroos attacking midfielder is set to depart in the off-season and is expected to join good friend and fellow ex-Glory young gun Daniel Bennie at Queens Park Rangers in England’s Championship. Ahead of Perth’s visit from Adelaide United this weekend, Pearman said he would miss the club, the fans and playing in front of The Shed. “Considering I joined the club and I was 10, now I’m turning 19 soon, it’ll definitely be an emotional one, and hopefully, we can finish it off with three points,” he said. Pearman has been a bright spark in an otherwise dim season for Perth, scoring two classy goals in his nine starts — the first of which handed Glory their only home win of the season. With a move to QPR appearing immediately imminent, Pearman said he was eager to gain experience at as high a level possible. “Any young player just needs experience. You’re going to take different things from different players, you’re going to learn new things; in the end, it’s about the pathway that you get and how your career pans out,” he said. “But I want to play as many minutes as possible and just keep playing my football.” While Pearman conceded it had been a tough season, he said he had learnt some valuable lessons which would hold him in good stead in the future. “It’s been different to what I expected at the start of the season, to not really playing to coming straight in and then playing a lot,” he said. “It’s been a really good experience in terms of playing, different results, different players, Zdrilla (coach David Zdrilic) telling me different things, helping me with different things, but all around I’ve enjoyed it a lot.” Pearman was part of the Australian side which triumphed in the under-20 Asian Cup, and has hopes of being part of their under-20 World Cup campaign in Chile later this year. He took a penalty in the shoot-out which clinched Australia’s first major youth title since the country joined the Asian Football Confederation; two months on, Pearman admitted he was still pinching himself. “It was an unreal experience, different boys from all around Australia, even Aussie boys who’ve been playing in Europe, just meeting new people, seeing boys that I’ve met before as well,” he said. “You become a family that whole month; you experience different people’s personalities, you take on different things they like, even off the pitch. “But on the pitch, it was an unreal experience in terms of winning games against big Asian teams and winning the competition was even better.”