Football academies: kicking and screaming
By Sally Williams
Football academies were developed by the leading clubs so that they could identify and nurture talented players from as young as eight. The 9,000 boys in their ranks are desperate to succeed, but only a handful will make it to the top.
Last April, Danny, 16, received devastating news. After six years at a London football academy he was told he was no longer wanted. For those years his parents had driven three times a week from their home in south London to the training ground (plus matches on Sundays) in pursuit of Danny’s dream to play left wing for a London Premier League side in 2013.
Danny is obsessed with football. He has a framed photograph of Steven Gerrard on his bedroom wall, could do a Cruyff Turn at the age of eight, has the balance of a gazelle and can do so many keepy-uppies even he loses count. Being scouted for that academy was the best day of his life. He worked fantastically hard. He loved the training, camaraderie and free drinks – ‘loads of Lucozade, Yazoo. You could take as many as you wanted!’ He loved feeling special. ‘Saying who you play for at school makes you twice the man you are.’ Football is his life.
But now his fantasy future is over. ‘You feel like your head has been cut off,’ he says. ‘He was so quiet,’ his dad says. ‘Just destroyed. It was awful.’ And now he has his GCSEs coming up and the last thing he wants to do is study. ‘You’re thinking, I want to be a footballer, I don’t even need this stuff – and your mum is saying, “You’ve got to work.” And you think work is just a back-up because your real aim is to be a footballer.’
