If your child has been offered the chance to join a football academy then my guess is that you didn’t hesitate to say yes. Football academies for many youngsters are the gateway to what could be a  professional football career. Yet, without trying to sound too pessimistic, I can pretty much guarantee that your child isn’t going to become a professional footballer. Todays sport section of the Sunday Times classifies that “around only half of one per cent of boys who enter academies at the age of 9 will make a living from the game”. So with such a high proportion of children not making the grade, why do I think you should still say yes? Quite simply, 0.5% of boys DO make it and whilst it’s  undeniably a small percentage, it is still a chance and it is a chance I wholeheartedly believe is worth taking. Academies are fabulous institutions to be part of and in my opinion can offer your child so much more than just great footballing coaching.

So your 6 year old son has just won the league with his local team, he received the golden boot award and players’ player of the year…… by the age of 8 his trophy cabinet is pretty much full.  Don’t worry, they won’t have gone unnoticed. His name will be known. You know they’ve got talent but so do all of the local academies and before you know it you will be collecting business cards from scouts from across your region. The dream of them joining an academy has suddenly become a reality.

Academies are not the right environment for all children so think carefully before you make any decisions. There is no rush. Your son or daughter isn’t suddenly going to stop being an amazing, talented player overnight. There really is no need to panic or get too excited…….yet!

We waited until our son, Caleb, was nearly 11 before we agreed for him to join an academy. We knew it wasn’t the right time for him or us as a family before this and we had politely declined interest from local clubs. My husband worked on weekends, we had no family close by to help and two other sons to consider. It would have been physically impossible for us to get him to training and games. It was better to say ‘no’ to an academy than say ‘yes’ then continually let them down. We didn’t feel like our son was mentally or physically ready for the demands of academy life. To be honest we weren’t either. I didn’t worry at all that he had missed his chance, we were 100% confident we were making the right decision. If he was good enough then his chance would come again and of course it did. At that time playing with his  friends at a local club was the right thing for him to do. I think if he had joined an academy earlier it would have taken the pleasure out of playing football for him. It also meant he was able to continue competing in other sports such as swimming, tennis and athletics. Obviously all children are different and some benefit hugely from the excellent coaching and stability an academy has to offer from an early age. You will know what is best for you, your child and your family. Listen to your head not your heart. It will always come good in the end. For us, my husbands job changed and he no longer worked at the weekends and at the same time Caleb felt like he was confident enough to leave the security of playing with his friends at his local club and he asked us if we would contact the scout that we had  politely refused for so long.

Caleb was very fortunate  to join a Premier League Academy that holds a Category 1 status. This is the highest classification awarded to an academy. To say he loves it there is an understatement. He is completely devoted, he was born kicking a ball and signing his first academy contract was a dream come true for him. Joining an academy at a later age meant he had a lot more to learn but he relished the challenge. He isn’t fazed by the 14 hours of training he does a week, or the 60 mile round trip he does to get to there. Early nights and missed social gatherings are a disappointment but its no fun travelling to Swansea at 7am for a Sunday morning  game when you’re tired, even less fun playing 80 minutes of football. I think one of the hardest things for Caleb was giving up his other sports. Before he joined an academy he competed in tennis and athletics but unfortunately all required serious amounts of training and commitment so both sports fell by the wayside eventually, no matter how hard we tried to keep them going. Maybe he could have been a record breaking high jumper, I guess we’ll never know…….

Academy football consumes your whole life. Time off is especially limited and the kids are expected to train through most of the school holidays. If they are progressing well they might play for the age group above as well as their own, which in turn could mean playing 2 games on a weekend.  Missing training sessions means missing game time so when I say you have to commit, I really do mean it. Your child will suffer the consequences of poor time keeping or poor attendance.  Is it fair to put your child under this pressure if you both work full time and can’t get your child to training for 5pm two or three times a week? Are you prepared to say no to family gatherings such as weddings and christenings? Facilitating your child’s ‘performance pathway’ will be incredibly demanding for them and you and any other children you may have.  For the academy player, sleepovers and birthday parties become a thing of the past…… for academy parents there will be no more lazy weekends. Your wallet will suffer, petrol and public transport don’t come free. Be prepared! You might believe your son is the next Ronaldo but I doubt your boss will care about this when you are leaving work early for the third time that week. There will be disappointments,  learn to deal with them. There will be decisions made that you don’t agree with,  learn to bite your tongue. There will be highs followed by crushing lows. Its all part and parcel of academy life for players and parents. The key to a happy academy life is attitude and it needs to be a good one.

But all of that aside, the benefits of being at an academy for your child are huge. Caleb has literally travelled all over the world playing in tournaments, his independence flourishing with every trip. His last tournament was a 12 day tour to Thailand. The experience was truly amazing for him.  He has made a fantastic set of friends who come from all different backgrounds and cultures. He knows the West Midlands rail network like the back of his hand and he has access to top notch professional facilities and some of the best coaching in this country.  Football has become his life and his level of commitment has to be admired. He is however a 14 year old boy and as we all know with teenagers, that can change. The ups and downs are all part of it so being thick skinned can help. Throw a bit of humility into the mix and he might just stand a chance……… The academy is like his second home, the staff are there to coach, support and guide him. This is something they do incredibly well. Its an academy that has ‘ownership’ at the very heart of its culture, encouraging players to take responsibility for their actions from behaviour to roles within the team. The coaches are very well respected and this is essential for a successful football academy.

Modern academies, especially at Category 1 level, are ran parallel with the senior team – with physio, sports science and analyst staff working alongside the coaches. The players are essentially in a junior version of an adult working environment from a young age. They can pick up key life and workplace skills, as well as viewing first hand the multitude of careers that are associated within a football club or sport in general. This in my opinion goes a long way to fulfilling the clubs duty of care post football for many of the players.

For me the only real downside of having a child at an academy is how much school my son misses. Currently  that is  one day a week but when the new school year starts it will be more, he will miss almost 2 days. It coincides with starting his GCSE’s which is obviously a worry. So far he has been able to keep up. He balances the demands of being at an academy alongside his schoolwork remarkably well. His school have been a tremendous support. That has been crucial in his success so far.

Of course I believe my son is going to be  in that group of  0.5% of boys whom make it. As his mother I think he will be the best defender this country has seen in a long time. But I’m not naïve and neither is he. Things change. Sometimes injuries happen, sometimes your face doesn’t fit, sometimes there is somebody better than you and sometimes it just simply doesn’t work out your way. Its life, that’s how it goes so you absolutely have to have plan B. You have to know what you will do when your football journey comes to an end. For Caleb his plan B is coaching or  physiotherapy so he is studying in preparation for a career that doesn’t involve kicking a ball.  We talk about this a lot with him, nearly everyday we discuss what will happen if the club let him go. We try to prepare him for this as much as we can. But it is hard, he’s doing well, he has been offered a scholarship by the club already, he was selected by the FA along with 6 others from his academy to attend a England selection camp for the men’s U15’s. His confidence is high so it’s hard for him to believe the truth of statistics. But it’s our responsibility as his parents to ensure that he understands the reality of such a unpredictable industry.

I’m very lucky that I get to see this hugely talented group of boys develop their game and grow in confidence every week. The level of skill is astonishing and its unbelievable to me that the majority of these boys wont make it as professionals. I just hope that they can use their academy experience positively when the time comes to hang up their boots, whenever that may be.