experiment:

[Niddhoeggr]

Sorry @nid for being late but I have 10 teams which I make my daily maintenance (exchanging gifts, a couple of training, setting the team for tomorrow's games) and I did the experiment to every each but no - fail.
not even once, by luck, the last lone trainer got the s.p.

Sorry Khris, I will add this thread at Mythbusters
(as busted - )

I was just kidding but happy to see that you also tried it.

[Altiplano]

Didn't work for me this morning. Worth a try though. Perhaps 2 or more training sessions with just the one player may send the free skill reward to him?