Academy players visit America and learn a future has more than one room
A group of academy players flew to Atlanta and made a discovery English football has spent decades trying to keep behind a locked door. A young person can play football, study something useful and still have a Tuesday morning after the final whistle.
The Premier League Futures trip brought players aged 17 to 19 to matches with MLS clubs and American colleges. They saw sport and education operating in the same building without anyone declaring the other one a betrayal of ambition.
For many English academies, the traditional career plan involves training from childhood, acquiring a tracksuit and discovering the labour market beside a car park at 20. Atlanta offered a less dramatic alternative, which was naturally viewed with deep suspicion.
Backup plan found wearing sensible shoes
“We showed them a future with more than one tunnel,” said Clive Second Half, director of Transferable Shin Pads. “One lad discovered that a CV is not a spreadsheet of loan spells. He is expected to recover.”
The players worked with local communities and learned about Atlanta’s civil rights history, including the legacy of Dr Martin Luther King. They also had football sessions, because no educational visit is safe from a man carrying cones.
The programme supports young players as they move beyond academy football. This is useful because professional sport often treats a backup plan as a minor injury, best ignored until it starts affecting the first team.
America did not solve football’s career problem. It merely demonstrated that employers, colleges and communities can all speak to young athletes before somebody tells them they have been released by email.
The visitors returned with wider horizons and more choices. Scouts may still ask about pace. At least somebody can now answer with a degree, community experience and the radical skill of imagining a life after the tunnel.
Read the real story: Premier League report on its US Futures trip
