We know that the great dream of all younger players is to become champions. But what happens if it doesn’t happen? For some time now, Premier League clubs have started to take this question very seriously. Because having the best nurseries, the best football prospects and the best structures is often not enough if the sporting path is not accompanied by similar training on a human and educational level. Especially in the top clubs, where the life experience since adolescence is all-encompassing and all-encompassing: not all those kids, however, are Max Dowman (indeed, almost none). And a good part of them will end up pursuing completely different professional careers. Away from the Emirates and the ball.
This is why organizations like Arsenal offer real integrated educational programs, so as not to deny their young members any path (a bit along the lines of what happens in the Netherlands, starting with the renowned Ajax academy). First of all, it’s about structuring the agenda and daily life: rest, study and training, exams during the week taken as seriously as matches at the weekend. What happens then, says The Athletic in a long report, is that student-footballers in the youth sectors now consistently achieve results well above average at the GCSE – the General Certificate of Secondary Education, the most important qualification achieved in the United Kingdom upon completion of compulsory schooling, between the ages of 14 and 16. In short, no more “jokes about Totti” and the like: becoming a footballer, in recent times, pushes towards excellence even in the classroom.
For the Premier League it is a crucial training aspect: out of the approximately 500 total players, almost one in three – at least eight per team, 160 in total – must be homegrowni.e. grown in nurseries, by regulation. The regulatory turning point dates back to 2012/13, when the Elite Player Performance Plan was launched precisely to modernize the growth of young talents in the world of sport. And today we are starting to reap the first generational fruits – with a certain necessary flexibility also on the part of the professionals.
Per Mertesacker, former Arsenal defender and now head of the youth sector, says for example that the kids often show up for training still dressed in their school uniform, because the pace is tight and the breaks are few. “This requires individual sessions based on class commitments,” explains the manager. “I remember that once Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis Skelly – among the Gunners’ best prospects, ed. – had to train with the team at Hale End. In the end instead they worked separately the next day, so as not to overwhelm them with things to do. Every now and then I see Myles still walking around the pitch with his A-level Spanish teacher.” Understanding yourself with the coach is important. Dowman himself, already in Arteta’s squad, will have his GCSEs next year. And even in his case, Arsenal will not take the exam lightly.
“We all want Max to finish his GCSEs as well as possible,” emphasizes Mertesacker. “Entering the first team as early as Ethan and Myles, even a year earlier, requires fundamental support from us. His parents and family have been fantastic, making him understand that he is a student first and foremost.” And not a child prodigy worth at least 15 million euros, even before having signed any professional contract. “It’s not easy to play in the Champions League and know that the next day you have to come prepared to class. His is a great challenge, and for us together with him: we want to make sure he doesn’t lose his sense of reality. We have to satisfy the basics of the education of any of our kids.” And do it as an Arsenal, in fact. Or from Brighton, Or from Newcastle. Football like this, until twenty years ago, was unthinkable: the aspects that are making it change for the better must also be underlined.
