According to the European Club Association, most professional clubs have around 220 players in the youth football academy.
Yet, 75% of the academy players come from the region (less than a 1-hour drive) the club is located in. It means that the most renowned football academies in the world (e.g. FC Ajax or FC Bayern youth academy) accept only local players. Hence, students from abroad or even more distant local regions of the same country cannot join them.
What should these players do in such a case? The best solution we know is to apply and study in independent, elite soccer football academies. The ones presented on Sportlane can definitely be proud of their alumni students and their success stories with «exits» to clubs from English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, French League 1 and etc.
You can choose a relevant soccer academy depending on your budget, location preferences, style of play and academic programs. School and college education is an important factor to consider when you decide to join the academy.
Almost all soccer academies have very structured academic programs that prepare students to excel in their studies and successfully enroll into prestigious universities upon completion of the program (if applicable).
Soccer programs in Spain, England, France are the most popular destinations for players who wish to continue their football career in those countries.
However, the USA, Germany, Greece, Scotland, Italy have their own high-performance football academies with world-class training programs and sports facilities. Students will get many opportunities to play competitive games and get noticed by coaches & scouts from pro clubs.
Many of them have regular football academy trials or open trials with scouts, coaches, and agents present to evaluate the future prospects. In the vast majority of cases, they have a staff of experienced and qualified coaching staff with licenses UEFA Pro, A, B.
Choose your soccer (football) academy program carefully be it in the UK, Spain, the USA and etc. Just do no set aside the registration for long, as many of them have a football trial process in place and require future participants to be evaluated before acceptance. No to say that spots are to fill up quickly.
We must remind here that it is not the location of the academy that matters the most, but its reputation, the quality of training, and subsequently the number of successful students.
