Getting a place in one of the top English football academies is a dream for most children that love football, and as you would expect the competition is incredibly tough. Simply turning up hoping to be spotted will not get you a place in a football academy.
For those lucky few that do get in, you will be in awe of the depth of professionalism that goes into not only your diet and well-being but your team play, mentality on and off the pitch and most of all your training ethics.
Children learn to develop their footballing skills, mental strength, physical agility, and fitness, amongst more strategic game play and learning how to think under pressure about the pass, cross, shot or run you will make as part of your wider team.
It is important for parents to understand which academies to target, and below shows the list of all the football academies in the UK Premier League and Championship. Find out about how each academy varies and which ones suit you best.
Premier League Football Academies
Premier League football academies will teach you about the clubs unique footballing philosophy and approach to the game, so each academy will have different focuses and modules. For a full list of Premier League football academies, browse through this page. It is kept up to date and contains more information than some of the official club pages since they are often so inundated with requests for trials that they keep public information to a minimum. Academies are the follow on from soccer schools and are different in that you have to be accepted to join an academy by taking trials against peers of your age groups. Places are much more limited, so competition is much tougher than a soccer school, which is open to anyone. The main football club scouts often monitor and watch academy training and matches, working closely with the Academy staff to assess the home grown talent they are producing, and look at how they can develop and progress players into the next age group…which means more Academy trials.Championship Football Academies
Don’t underestimate the quality of Championship footballing academies. Football Academies are given ratings by the FA (Football Association) and there are some key academies in the Championship such as Reading FC that are ranked category one. To put this into perspective, not all Premiership Academies achieve a category one ranking, so it is definitely worth checking them out. See the full list of Championship football academies below:Sky Bet League One Academies
And whilst a Sky Bet League One Academy might not seem as glamorous, the coaching again is of really high quality with just as many scouts watching games, so if you are after developing your footballing career as a professional, if a Sky Bet League One Academy is closer to you, then it definitely worth checking out.
