Football's Nearly Men - A Star is Born?

 

Participating in football from an early age offers a multitude of physical health benefits for more and more youngsters these days. Football is a full-body workout, promoting muscle growth, bone density, and joint flexibility plus it plays a vital role in nurturing mental well-being among youngsters. Most youngsters start with local grass roots football, if not put off early by the pressure of parents on the touchline who seem to be living their own dreams through their children. Sean Dyche and Gary Lineker have noted, "You see lot of them going mental on the sidelines because they are losing an under-6 match. I am amazed what I see at youth level. You wouldn't scream at your kids if they were learning to play the piano. Or learning to read." This, posted on social media, highlights the problem :-  

Two dads are watching a junior football match. 

"Which one is your lad?"

 "Why?" 

"I wanted to tell him how rubbish he is"

 "You can't say that, he's only a kid, how would you like it if I said that to your lad?"

 "You have done throughout the game"

 "Why, who's your lad?" 

"The referee!"

In the pursuit of footballing stardom, young players from all over the country also flock to professional academy set-ups within clubs to hone their skills and progress through the ranks to the first team and possibly beyond. Children, some as young as five, are being enrolled in academy settings where they are commonly referred to as 'pro' or 'elite' youth players. At any one time, there are between 10,000 and 12,000 boys in football's youth development system. In Premier League academies alone there are around 3,500 boys; the youngest are nine years old, although pre-academy training can start even younger, but of those entering academies at the age of nine, less than 0.5% will ever make a living from the game. Just 1.4% of soccer players who play at a school level proceed to turn into expert football players and it is estimated that of the 1.5 million players who are playing organised youth football in England at any one time, around 180 - or 0.012% - will make it as a Premier League professional. For every Trent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool, or Phil Foden of Manchester City, there are hundreds of thousands of youngsters whose dreams falter - and the effects can be devastating. 

A recent 10-year report into the Premier League's Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) said: "It is the unavoidable reality of the pathway that the majority of young people will leave the academy system without a professional playing career. Therefore, it is important to manage expectations... the chances of progression represent the reality of elite sport rather than a failure of the academy system." However, even those who manage to survive the 'first cuts' can still find unforseen hurdles in their way. They may be seen as 'wonderkids', their talents hyped up to unreachable heights, but who then inevitably fail to meet the mark and fade into obscurity as a result. Then there are those who actually achieve their 'goal' and are signed up by teams with ambitions clearly extended beyond domestic success. Each and every season sees at least one hastily elevated teenager burdened with enormously high expectation based on little more than a promising debut. Should they extend on this promise, these kids are typically linked to big money moves in the next transfer window or backed to win an international cap, their progression to superstardom apparently assured. 

While these select few that appear to thrive on the pressure, the 'wonderkid' tag for many can actually be a bit of a career destroyer. Also there are a myriad of reasons why they do not progress or the success they have been destined for is unfulfilled. These include, a lack of commitment, injuries, bad advice, other external influences, or the mere fact that they fall out of love with the game. Over the following weeks we take a look at those who have fallen into this latter catergory.