YOUNG ice hockey player Ollie Bronnimann has been handed the chance to prove himself with a leading European club.

Ollie, of Northdown Park Road, Cliftonville, will link up with Swiss outfit Geneva Eagles in August for three years.

The 16-year-old’s contract officially started on June 1, but he will not make the move until after he has finished his GCSE exams at Ursuline College, Westgate.

Geneva are part of the Anschutz Group, who run the Los Angeles Kings in the National Hockey League, and if Ollie shows good progress he will spend some time with their rookie camp in America during the final year.

His dad Peter said: “Geneva are a wealthy club and have given Ollie a good contract that will pay for his accommodation and food expenses, as well as his licence card.

“The club was really sold to him by Chris McSorley (former coach of the London Knights) and they are investing in him in the hope that he will be good enough to play for their first team in a few years time.”

Although Ollie’s arrangement with Geneva is different to an American-style scholarship, which is tied in with schooling, he will get French lessons.

Peter said: “He has two years to try to become a professional, we also hope he will get good life experience from it and learn a language as well.

“He has always been laid back and has taken all this in his stride.”

Bronniman, who has dual nationality because of his Swiss dad, has represented both England and Switzerland under-16s.

He has been playing club ice hockey in this country for Guildford and iced for their first team, the Flames, a couple of times last season.

Previously he played in Kent for the Invicta Dynamites, who are the junior side of the Gillingham-based Invicta Dynamos.

It will be Ollie’s second spell abroad following a four-month stint in America two years ago playing at Triple A level, the highest for a youngster, with Detroit.

But on that occasion he came home after four months when the team’s manager, who Ollie was staying with, parted company with the club.

Peter said: “The team wanted to keep him but we would have had to have found him another family to stay with. He was only 14 at the time so we decided to bring him back to England.”