MILITARY recruitment posters used to say ‘Join the Army, see the world’.

Cirencester College student Connor Thompson has found a much safer passport to global travel through football.

Thompson, 17, has been called up to not one but two international football squads.

The tricky right winger with an eye for a goal made it through four separate trials and training camps to be named in the final 18-man England Schools Football Association U18 squad with the possibility of tours later this year to Spain, America and Poland.

He has also broken into the England Colleges U19 set-up who are due to tour Italy in May.

Connor joins up with his elite England School teammates at Lilleshall at the end of the month before heading to Malaga for a training camp prior to their games in the home international series (Centenary Shield).

Two England matches – away to Scotland on April 21 and to the Republic of Ireland seven days later – are to be televised live on Sky TV.

“I was chuffed to bits, ecstatic, when I had the call-up confirmed,” said the former Wootton Bassett School pupil who lives in West Swindon.

“The competition for places was very strong, especially in my position, but I thought I had done well in the final trial games.

“I got an assist in the 3-0 win over the RAF and scored the winner in the 1-0 victory over the Army.

“I played right across the midfield in the games so that versatility must have helped.”

Thompson, grandson of former Swindon Town left half Fred Thompson, is one of a very strong local contingent in the England side. Other Wiltshire players are Jack Vallis and Edward Baldy, while Hartpury College in Gloucestershire is represented by Thomas Boakye and Jack Wood, while Connor’s friend Jordan Ayris, who plays for Brackley Town, comes in under the Oxfordshire banner. Connor is a star of Steve Lowndes’ Cirencester Town Academy side which has won all seven matches in the England Colleges Football Association Premier League, this season while he has also broken into Brian Hughes’ Cirencester Town first team in the Zamaretto Premier.

“The Academy side are joint top with our local rivals Hartpury and also had a great run in the FA Youth Cup, unluckily going out to Aldershot.

“At 2-2 we had them on the back foot and it was devastating to lose to a breakaway goal,” said Thompson. “I have trained with the Cirencester Town firsts since pre-season and it has definitely helped me get to grips with the physical side of the adult game.”

Any thoughts of a professional football career have been put on hold, however, as he has accepted a place this autumn at Loyola University in Baltimore.

‘The Greyhounds’ finished fourth in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference League in 2010 and their star striker Phil Bannister has earned a Major League Soccer trial.

“I had 25 university places to choose from in the States,” said Thompson, “but Loyola are academically very strong and the football facilities in Maryland are second to none. They play in a 7,000 seater stadium.

“The package was really sold to me by their head coach Mark Mettrick, a former Manchester United youth team player.

“I have really set my heart on going to the States, but there are sure to be lots of scouts at the England U18 games.

“If I got an offer from a League club, I don’t know what I would do.”