Some clubs strive to develop the person before the footballer; some do not. The problem is that you don't know which club you are at until it is too late. Are you at a club that has a person-centred culture, or are you at a club that delivers what it has to, and that is your lot?
Over the past week or so, a debate has unfolded on LinkedIn, which caused me to reflect a lot. In doing so, I began writing down my thoughts and decided I'd share them with you.
The debate was started by a coach educator who posed the following question at the start of his article.
“Academies are great at producing players… but are they producing well-rounded people?”
Let's be clear, professional football is a high-risk occupation, with research showing injury rates as high as 0.40 per player per season at the academy level.
In as little as 12 weeks, you can begin your journey, independent of the club, on learning the inside game the clubs are playing, develop a career playbook with tangible goals to work towards and plans for dealing with events and have a clear mind on what the future will hold.
Curtis Joseph, Roberto Baggio, John Arne Riise, Paul Merson, Lee Hendrie, Andriy Shevchenko, David James, Vinnie Jones, Paul Gascoigne, Ravel Morrison, Adrian Mutu, Kieron Dyer, Jon Bostock, Fabio de Silva…
