DAVID SMITH watches the group of 11- and 12-year- olds scampering around the pitch in pursuit of a football.

To this group of Drumchapel youngsters, nothing in life is more important. Nothing else matters.

That once was him, a promising player with aspirations of a professional career. "If you don't make it, nobody will," people told him. Smith believed them. His ego, inflated by the praise, convinced him that stardom beckoned. Bigger and stronger than most of his peers, he trained with St Johnstone and Dundee before finding himself at Livingston. He didn't question why the Tayside clubs let him leave. Their loss, he told himself, as he established himself at centre-back in an Almondvale youth team featuring such as James McPake and Richard Brittain.

It was not until he was released that reality interrupted the hubris. Training with Partick Thistle, he found that he could not longer outrun or outmuscle opponents, and worse, his technique was no more refined than it had been several years earlier. He was being left behind.

"By the time the penny dropped, it was too late," Smith says. He was just short of his 19th birthday when a falling out with the manager proved the final straw. "I just walked away during a training session. It was horrible. It wasn't the smartest thing to do but I  think I did it for the right reasons t the time."

Upon reflection, the 28-year-old realises that, aside from being "injury prone and lazy" he was ultimately just another victim of his circumstances. "Growing up in a scheme can be a bit of a trap," he says. "I had a chance, like loads of people around me in Drumchapel who were fantastic players but ended up having kids at 14 or getting into drugs or whatever." Drink, women and bampottery did for Smith, the admission that he had "calmed down by the age of 16" offering an alarming insight into a past that he is eager to leave behind, but not forget. That is why he is standing at the side of a pitch on a bleak Thursday evening between Christmas and New Year cajoling and encouraging a group of kids, just as others had for him.

The season might be in recess, but Drumchapel United 2001s – the team he started in 2009 – still train once a week to maintain bonds forged during a remarkable past few months in which a group of kids who had barely been outside Glasgow, never mind Scotland, found themselves playing football in Denmark.

Even now, five months later, Smith finds it difficult to believe. When it was suggested to him, during a visit to Copenhagen with the Scottish Youth Football Association last year, that he return with his team, the very notion appeared ridiculous. "I mentioned it to the parents and their reaction was 'aye, very good, David' because it might as well have been a trip to the moon. We needed to raise £12,000 but we spoke to the kids and asked them if they wanted to give it a go, and they did."

Following months of fundraising, the squad flew out for five days in July, meeting the players and coaches of Nordsjaelland, the Danish champions, as well as playing a couple of matches and experiencing the local culture. "A lot of people doubted we could do it and, because I'd never done anything like that, I did at times, as well. But the most amazing thing is that the kids now understand they can achieve their goals if they work hard enough. Never mind the football coaching, that's the best lesson I've been able to give them and give myself, actually, that you can be successful despite your social background."

Having recovered from his early disappointment to carve out a career as a community worker, Smith is evidence of that. Having been a popular figure around local youth clubs while still nurturing aspirations of a football career, he was persuaded to go on a council course and has progressed from there, culminating in his crowning as young person's coach of the year at the sportscotland awards last month.

Coaching has become an addiction, splitting his time between his own "wee scheme team" and work for both the SYFA and Coerver Scotland but a decade since he walked away from playing professionally, the pain still lingers. "I said for years that it didn't bother me but deep down I was really hurt about it," he admits. "I used to carry that wee chip on my shoulder but once I accepted that I couldn't turn back the clock, I realised I had to move on. Now I can say to the kids 'look, I'm proof of what can happen'.

"I tell them I love coaching and that it's the next best thing to playing but sometimes, when I'm really honest with them, I ask if they want to be standing where I am, doing this, or do they want to be on Sky Sports News because they've scored a hat trick in the Scottish Cup final? I know I'd give it all up to have that for myself."