Dr Chris Platts
Are you dreaming of being a professional footballer? To reach that dream, you are likely to have to compete for a scholarship at a professional football club and, hopefully, enter a club’s academy at the age of 16. Perhaps you are already there? But how much do you know about being a scholar? In this blog, I share some of the research I have done over the past 15 years in this area and serve up five things you need to know about life in an Academy. These are the top five things my research suggests scholars do not grasp before they get into an Academy and they can take you by surprise, undermining your experience.
The research used in this blog is based on the views of 303 scholars who were employed at 21 professional football clubs. I also spoke to 13 Coaches and 20 Welfare Officers. All these people spoke anonymously so they were able to share the truth about life in academies (all of their names have been changed to protect their identities).
Some of the players were in their first year and some were nearing the end of their scholarship. Some were in Premier League academies and some were in League Two. It is the largest truly independent examination of life in academies and it is here for you. It is not about sugarcoating this, some of this might be hard to read. But if you are about to head into an academy, this is for you…
Bottom of the Pile
One of the ‘hidden rules’ that exist in an academy is that the first-year scholars are at the bottom of a hierarchy. What does this mean? Well, imagine a ladder and at the very start of your scholarship you will be at the bottom of the ladder. The longer people have been in the game and the higher their position in the club the further up the ladder they are from you. For example, on the step above you on this ladder are the second-year scholars, on the step above them are the first-year professionals and so on. Here is one of the group of players we interviewed explaining how they are viewed at their Premier League club:
Liam: Probably at the bottom like, bottom of the ladder.
Josh: We get the blame for everything.
