Jan 31, 2021
Positive Actions to Take if You Are Released
This Year May Different to Past and Future Years
2021 will be an interesting year. The impact of Brexit means that Premier League clubs are no longer able to import under 18 players into the UK. And with Covid-19 closing so many borders, bringing in players further afield than the EU will be challenging.
Domestically speaking, many academies are operating with a small core of staff, the remainder are furloughed. This means most matches have been cancelled and scouting activity has slowed right down.
In theory, there may be fewer players departing Category One clubs but the gaps created by those that have left may well stimulate a frenzy of clubs looking for lower league bargains to be snapped up and for lower leagues to retain more of their players or make offers to players in other lower league clubs to fill their ranks.
Overall, there may be fewer players released and fewer players without football homes to go to by the time the new season arrives.
Treasure the Positives
But if you have been released from the club, you should hold your head up high and be very proud of what you have achieved in football. You have excelled in your passion, one of the few to have played at the highest levels in youth football.
This says a lot about your strength of character. Look back on all those assessments you had every six weeks when you listened to the positives and negatives of your performance, how you reacted and developed your football and thinking skills.
If you started in the development squad, you have had more performance assessments than most adults will have in their entire working career - and you passed them all bar your final one.
You leave your club a far better person and with bags of kudos and respect from family and friends.
What did I do wrong?
Maybe nothing at all. From the club’s perspective they have been looking at the players in the age groups ahead of you and behind you; working out who has the greatest potential to turn professional. If you have an international player in your position, in the age group above, it's just bad luck. Any other time and you might have made it. However, sometimes you must be honest with yourself and accept that you have reached your level in football.
Football decisions are increasingly less about just one coach's opinion and whim. Decisions are increasingly data driven but you can never rule out a clash of personalities or even personal dislikes. Everybody is human and capable of making decisions based on feelings rather than evidence as indicated by the Myers Briggs personality trait test.
You should also remember, that like music, football decisions even with data, are in the end opinions which can be wrong. How many artists and players have initially been turned down but go on to achieve great success.
Work out what you do next?
If it's not football, just think what you could achieve if you applied the same amount of passion and effort to your next career option. Savour the time you had in football, remember the famous people you met, the exclusive facilities that you played at and know that in the future, you’ll be able to replay many stories over dinner about how you nutmegged some of your former, soon to be famous, opponents.
Leaving academy football opens a large gap in your life. You owe it to yourself to maximise your career options and focus on the remaining time left at school. Study hard to make up for the time you sacrificed going to day-release football and training during the evenings and at the weekends.
If you keep your options open, you can pursue careers in the professions, investment banking, hedge fund management or become a partner in a legal, accounting and management consulting businesses to name a few options. This is the other way you can access the sort of trappings that football provides.
Whatever you do? Don’t fall into the arms of drugs and drug dealer school friends to get that fix of excitement and respect. It’s a short-term fix and leads to waste and tragedy. You are better than that.
Add your football experience to your CV
Add your football experience to your career CV. In every single way, you were all but employed by the football club. The only thing that was missing was pay. You signed a contract with a famous if not a well-known brand. You followed their rules and complied with their values. You were assessed every 6 weeks. You developed extremely valuable soft skills which are so often lacking in business today.
Include your soft skills
These include working as a team, working hard, strong verbal communications, positive thinking, overcoming adversity, applying tactics and following a strategy. For some, playing in an academy may have enabled you to achieve scholarship status at your school. These are all things that can out-point a straightforward academic candidate who did nothing but study with all the time they had available to them. Businesses need well rounded bright individuals that have the energy and drive to make a difference to their results. Something you know all too well.
But I still want to play football
If you have honestly assessed your own strengths and weaknesses and not the desire of pushy parents and you still believe you still you have what it takes, approach other clubs for a trial. Don’t spin them a hard luck tale. All clubs have access to the PMA database, so they can look up your details and reports and see the things that might not have been visible or said to you whilst at your former club.
You might want to consider asking for all the data the club holds about you to see if the answer the club gave for your release is genuine or was there another reason? General Data Protection Regulations and UK Information Act affords you this opportunity. You may have to pay a nominal fee of say £20. The club will need to supply this information quickly in say two weeks of asking and paying the fee. Legally this can take up to one month or if the request is complex to deliver; three months at the latest. The club does not have to supply data that it legally considers to be management planning.
USA soccer calling
Assuming international borders open up to some extent within the next 12 months, another way to pursue a football career is through the university divisions which can be the pathway to Major League Soccer which many regard as the up-and-coming sport to rival American Football and Baseball. A decent football CV has the power to access scholarship opportunities. USA universities are very expensive to attend. Free scholarship places are much sort after, and this is where you must be careful. Sports consultancies offer, for a considerable fee of £1,500 - £2,000+ to help you apply and obtain the maximum discounts on offer ahead of other applicants.
We urge you to look carefully at the end costs. Sports such as baseball, basketball, Lacrosse, and American football certainly do offer free places. We found scholarships for soccer to be less generous with fees eventually rounding out to be the same as UK university fees of £9,000+ per year. This is not necessarily to be sniffed at as you will find USA tuition fees without discounts are around $50,000 per year. £2,000 spent with a consultancy could net a $40,000 discount but make sure you factor in accommodation, travel, healthcare, insurance and flights too. And remember you may not have quite the same fresher experience as the in the UK. Alcohol purchases are restricted to 21 years and above in the USA.
For more information on football academies keep an eye out for an upcoming feature on BBC 1’s One Show.
All that’s left to say is... the very best of luck to you. Go forward and succeed?
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