BREAKTHROUGH

My Research: The ‘Amateur’ Route

Since the start of 2020, I have been researching career pathways of current under-23 players across Europe’s top five leagues. As a result, I have so far distinguished five different routes into professional football. This post is dedicated to the fourth of them, which I called the amateur route. It is about players who started their senior careers in non-league, amateur or semi-professional football.

This may have seemed a thing of the past.

When one Antonio – Michail – went down under a challenge from another – Rüdiger – in the Chelsea penalty area, something uncommon in modern football was about to happen.

The referee did not blow his whistle. Instead, the West Ham United forward picked himself up and, seconds later, converted home a low cross across the face of goal from Jarrod Bowen to give his side a precious lead in a crucial derby game.

What was so special about that move, which happened just a few weeks ago – apart from the seemingly rare occurrence when a player brought down quickly got himself up rather than started complaining to the referee?

It was that both key touches, Bowen’s cross and Antonio’s finish, were provided by players who began their seniors careers below the four professional tiers of English football.

THEN AND NOW

As for Michail Antonio, now 30 and brought up in a different era to his 23-year-old teammate, his pathway does not seem very uncommon.

Born in Greater London, Antonio joined local side Tooting & Mitcham United Juniors at the age of 12 before making his senior debut for the club five years later, playing in the Isthmian League – featuring amateur and semi-professional clubs from London and areas nearby – and only then signing for Reading in October 2008.

In fact, there have been a number of Premier League players currently around the age of 30 who started out in non-league football, with Jamie Vardy, but also Chris Smalling (now on loan at Roma) providing the most obvious examples.

These days, however, this indeed seems a thing of the past.

Professional club academies tend to sign players up as early as possible – hence the English route – or scout them as teenagers – hence the French route – and even from abroad – hence the international route.

Yet, there are still players who somehow escape through the system or simply develop at a later stage – hence the amateur route.

Jarrod Bowen reportedly had unsuccessful trials at both Aston Villa and Cardiff City before joining the youth system of Hereford United. There, in the Football Conference, he made his senior debut back in 2014 and soon moved to Hull City.

If you like such stories, cherish them. They may not be happening in the future.

In the picture: Jarrod Bowen began his senior career in fifth tier of English football (source: West Ham United FC)

My Research: The ‘International’ Route

Since the start of 2020, I have been researching career pathways of current under-23 players across Europe’s top five leagues. As a result, I have so far distinguished five different routes into professional football. This post is dedicated to the third of them, which I called the international route. It is about players who moved abroad as teenagers to fulfil their dream of a senior football career.

Some children could be deemed fortunate.

They happen to have been born in a city, or at least close enough to start training at a professional football club academy at an early age.

Others could be regarded as less fortunate.

They happen to have been born in a town or village and would only be able to join a professional academy set-up as teenagers. If they are ready for it.

But some – no matter where they come from – decide to go via a route other than the English and the French one.

FIRST-TEAM CHANCE

Cesc Fàbregas was possibly the first, as it later turned out, high-profile footballer to have opted for the international route of player development.

Aged 16, the boyhood Barcelona fan felt he might struggle to nail down a place in the Catalan club’s first-team, so made a brave decision to move abroad.

His senior debut for Arsenal came the following month after he had signed for the London club in September 2003. He has never looked back since, even though he did return to Barcelona for a three-year spell in 2011.

If Fàbregas was a trail blazer, he has proved an influential one indeed.

Aspiring teenage footballers – particularly from Spain, it may seem – have regularly travelled abroad – usually to England, again at least seemingly – in pursuit of a professional career since.

Manchester City centre back Eric García, who left Barcelona for England at exactly the same age as Fàbregas had done a generation earlier, is perhaps the best recent example of the trend.

BIGGER WORLD

Fàbregas, García and many others may have gone international wary of the enormity of the challenge of breaking into the first-team at one of the biggest football clubs in the world.

For others, a move abroad is either an opportunity to continue their development in a more professional set-up or even the only chance of making a career in the game.

An ex-teammate of Fàbregas, Wojciech Szczęsny also joined Arsenal at the age of 16. His previous club, now joint record-time Polish Champions Legia Warsaw, are only opening a proper training centre this month.

More recently, future teammate of Szczęsny at Juventus, Dejan Kulusevski first set his foot on Italian soil aged 16, too, having swapped Brommapojkarna for Atalanta four years ago.

Perhaps most evidently, however, the international route is particularly popular among players from Africa.

(And not necessarily from South America where young footballers tend to make their senior debuts back home before getting signed by a European club.)

Here, the name of Sadio Mané, who travelled to Metz from Dakar-based Génération Foot academy at the age of 18, possibly stands out.

Both Gambia-born Musa Barrow, who, again, Atalanta signed from a local club in Banjul aged 18, and Musa Juwara also provide perfect examples of players who had to swap a continent, let alone country, to be able to fulfil their career – and life – ambitions.

CONTROVERSY

As with both the English and French route, there are also plenty of talking points surrounding the international pathway.

Barcelona were notoriously handed a transfer ban back in 2014 after FIFA ruled the Catalan giants had breached transfer and registration rules in the cases of as many as 10 of their international, under-18 players.

Andre Onana, Bobby Adekanye, Ian Poveda and Takefusa Kubo were among the teenagers who had to leave the club at the time.

(Under current regulations, players are allowed to move abroad within the European Union from the age of 16 and once they turn 18 when it comes to transfers from outside of the EU. Unless, as in the case of Marseille-born Jérémie Boga who joined Chelsea aged 12 after his father found a new job in London, there are other than sporting reasons behind a move.)

Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid and Chelsea have since all received their transfer bans for similar reasons while other big clubs such as Liverpool and Manchester City have also come under scrutiny.

Meanwhile, Chelsea have also been accused of signing international teenage footballers purely for financial reasons – in order to sell them at a profit in the future rather than provide them with a pathway to the first-team squad.

It seems every route has its winners and losers.

VISIT THIS BLOG LATER THIS MONTH TO LEARN ABOUT THE AMATEUR ROUTE.

In the picture: Eric García left Barcelona for Manchester City at the age of 16 (found here)

My Research: The ‘French’ Route

Since the start of 2020, I have been researching career pathways of current under-23 players across Europe’s top five leagues. As a result, I have so far distinguished five different routes into professional football. This post is dedicated to the second of them, which I called the French route. It is about players who joined a professional club academy aged 10 or older having earlier played at a local grassroots football club(s).

My research project – and this blog – began with the ‘English’ route.

Initially, I only looked out for players who joined a professional club academy at a very young age and then progressed all the way through to the same club’s first-team.

However, there always seem to be various pathways leading to the same goal.

And perhaps the most common route to becoming a senior footballer is by starting out at a local grassroots football club and only moving to a professional club academy several years later.

Just as the likes of Eduardo Camavinga and Kai Havertz have done.

AS LATE…

In England, professional club academies are legally allowed to tie players to their first contracts from the third weekend of May at the under-8 age group.

They tend to compete for talent even earlier, though, with the idea that unless you attract a player as young as possible, someone else will do exactly that.

“We make them sign at a younger age now”, confirms Matthieu Bideau, head of recruitment at the FC Nantes Academy, just the other side of the English Channel.

“There is so much competition that if we don’t make them sign, someone else will take them.

“The local clubs are at war with one another to get the best players as young as possible. The English clubs are sharks. The French teams are sheep. The amateur clubs are sardines.”

What Bideau means by younger age, however, is 11-12. This is the earliest stage at which player scouting is said to begin in France.

As well as, for example, in País Vasco.

“We start late as we want them to have the chance to be kids first“, the Real Sociedad Academy director Luki Iriarte has recently explained.

“Down in Madrid and Valencia, and most of the continent these days, there are tournaments for under-7s. We don’t believe in that. By bringing players in later, we stand less chance of getting it wrong.

“Of course, there are kids who look good when very young and have the profile to win us youth tournaments, but do they have the profile of a player who will play in our first team?

“I’m convinced in our methodology a little bit more every single day.”

The youngest age group at the Real Sociedad Academy is currently the under-13s. They claim not to scout players younger than 10 years of age.

Instead, they have over 70 partner clubs in their region. Their neighbours Athletic Bilbao have over 100 of them.

“Yes, we run the risk that neighbouring clubs will pick them up during the younger years, but our message to them is: ‘Stay in your environment. Stay with your family. Stay with your friends‘”, Iriarte added.

“‘And if you feel like you’re ready to leave all of those behind, then you can come to Real Sociedad’.”

Sounds familiar?

There was a similar reasoning behind Bayern Munich’s recent, headline-making decision to scrap their under-9 and under-10 club academy squads.

Rather than running those age groups themselves, the German record champions have decided to develop their network of satellite clubs and increase opportunities for local talent to be able to showcase their skills and abilities in their natural environment for as long as possible.

… AS POSSIBLE

Could such an approach work in, say, London? Or in any other city where there is no one dominant club?

Possibly not.

The likes of Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad, separated from each other by around 100 kilometres, have used it to their advantage, though.

Just take a look at the former’s current first-team squad.

All nine of their under-23 players started their careers at local clubs and only joined Athletic aged 10 (Unai Núñez), 12 (Iñigo Córdoba), 14 (Unai Simón and Asier Villalibre) or even 16 (Bilbao-born Unai Vencedor).

As for their local rivals, the story is much the same.

Igor Zubeldia and Ander Barrenetxea were both 11 when they joined the club. Martín Zubimendi was 12.

More examples can be found in other countries.

Kylian Mbappé was as old as 14 when he left the suburbs of Paris for Monaco. Suat Serdar was 11 when he signed for Mainz. Alex Meret was 15 when he first trained with Udinese. And even Ben Chilwell did not join Leicester City until he was 13.

THE FRENCH ROUTE

In contrast to the English route, the French one seems naturally much more common, although not exclusive to, among players who were born and raised in small towns rather than big cities.

After all, not every child happens to grow up near a professional club academy.

And a lot of them, if not most, actually do come from towns and villages rather than metropolis.

Don’t they?

VISIT THIS BLOG NEXT WEEK TO LEARN ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL ROUTE.

In the picture: San Sebastián-born Ander Barrenetxea, who joined the city’s La Liga club aged 11 from a local team, is the second youngest-ever player to appear for ‘La Real”s first-team (found here)

My Research: The ‘English’ Route

Since the start of 2020, I have been researching career pathways of current under-23 players across Europe’s top five leagues. As a result, I have so far distinguished five different routes into professional football. This post is dedicated to the first of them, which I called the English route. It is about players who joined a professional club academy at a young age and progressed all the way through the ranks right up to the same club’s senior first-team.

The original idea for my project – and this blog – came from Ben Knight.

The Chelsea Academy coach was one of the guest speakers at the Lech Conference event in Poznań last December when he showcased just how many of the club’s recent youth graduates have been at Chelsea from a very young age.

The likes of Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori were both seven when they first joined the Blues. Mason Mount, Reece James and Callum Hudson-Odoi were all six.

And the list is a lot longer.

CONTROVERSY

The subject of organising training groups for and coaching – let alone scouting – children aged so young by the very top European football clubs seems to have been attracting more and more controversy.

Manchester City’s under-5 elite squad, who reportedly train three times a week, has been described as absolute madness by the Head of Talent and Performance for UK Coaching.

“It will be in the child’s head that they are a footballer, because they’re in the ‘elite squad’”, Nick Levett has argued.

“The reality is that they will probably be released by the age of nine. There’s the issue of identity foreclosure, in which the child has an identity without having explored other options or ideas. When that’s shattered there can be wellbeing issues.

“At the age of 10 or 11 they are in a better place to cope with that, but not at four. Don’t take a photo like the first team. Don’t call it elite.

“There are also the kids who haven’t been selected for the elite squad. To be told you are not good enough at four, when you can’t eat your tea without spilling some is just not common sense. The worry is it becomes common practice.”

In fact – and in stark contrast – Bayern Munich last month announced they were going to scrap their under-9 and under-10 club academy squads.

“By taking this step, we would like to create more free-time opportunities for the youngest children so that they could also try out other sports”, explained the Bayern Academy sports coordinator at the U9 to U15 age level, Peter Wenninger.

“Long-term studies have shown that learning different sporting skills and abilities can have a positive impact on everyone’s football performance.”

“With this step, children should be able to develop longer in the home environment of their local clubs without the pressure to perform nor additional time [spend on travelling]”, added the Bayern Academy deputy sports director, Holger Seitz.

I touched upon this topic here, too.

THE ENGLISH ROUTE

What does not work for Bayern seems to be working for other clubs, though.

The German Champions currently have just one single player in their entire first-team squad who was born in Bavaria. Thomas Müller made his senior debut 12 years ago and did not make it via the English route regardless.

However, it is not only Chelsea that produce professional footballers who joined the club before the age of 10.

Arsenal have four under-23s who made it all the way through their academy system while left-back Kieran Tierney had done the same at Celtic.

Joe Willock was as young as four years of age when he first started training with the Gunners having been allowed to participate in training sessions alongside his older brother Chris.

Meanwhile, Trent Alexander-Arnold has been at Liverpool since the age of six. Scott McTominay and Mason Greenwood joined Manchester United’s development centres in Preston and Halifax respectively at similar age. Marcus Rashford has been at the club since the age of seven, having earlier spent two years at local club Fletcher Moss Rangers.

Manchester City – yes, them too – also have first-team players who went the English route. Stockport-born Phil Foden was scouted aged nine. Potential future stars Tommy Doyle and Taylor Harwood-Bellis, who both made their senior debuts this season, have been at the club since the age of five and six respectively.

If you happen to have been born in a city or close to one, it seems you have a chance of joining a professional club academy at an (very) early age and then break through into the same club’s first-team.

And not only in England.

In fact, you can find examples of players who went the English route in other countries, too.

Ferran Torres is just one of a number of Valencia proper youth products. Hertha Berlin have recently had an impressive record in Germany. AC Milan and Olympique Marseille have done well in Italy and France respectively.

Rayan Cherki was also very young when Olympique Lyonnais first took hold of him.

AWARENESS

It appears joining a professional club academy at a tender age does not have to be harmful for a player’s development.

There have already been too many successful examples that have proved otherwise.

It seems important to be able to overcome common truths.

Training at a professional club academy at a young age does not need to be highly stressful nor it needs to be relentlessly competitive.

Back in Poznań last December, Ben Knight showed how Chelsea’s youngest age group begin the season by travelling to a two-day integration camp rather than straight away going to a big football tournament.

The level of awareness seems high.

“If you get very professional at a young age then these kids are going to burn out“, the Manchester United Academy manager Nick Cox has acknowledged. “Maybe their love and joy of the game is diminished and we don’t want that.

“We like to go slow and steady and make the experiences the boys have with us to be childlike, appropriate and authentic.

“No-one really quite understands where players are going to get to in the long term and we have to be really honest about that. We’ve designed a system in this country that kind of gives the impression we know.

“Actually we don’t know and anyone who claims to is probably ill-informed.”

And yes, at the same time, the English route may not be for everyone.

Footballers break through in various ways, which my research has so far proved.

VISIT THIS BLOG NEXT WEEK TO LEARN ABOUT THE FRENCH ROUTE.

In the picture: Joe Willock has been at Arsenal since the age of four (found here)