Please click Here
There are many organisations who will tell you that they can help you become a "Professional player", that they will get matches and trials against Pro clubs and will be able to use their 'network' of Premiership and Football League scouts coaches and agents to watch you after you have paid an expensive fee to attend their course.
Please, do not be fooled. Most professional clubs have extensive coverage of their own counties and use their own contacts within this framework to recruit players.
Of course some players do escape the 'net' and are missed but most of the time if you are good enough, a Pro club representative will hear of you or you will be 'spotted' by scouts and recruitment officers -linked to or full time- at Professional clubs and asked to attend a trial.
It is very rare that a 16 to 21+ year old is asked to trial, let alone sign professional contracts, when he has never been developed through a Professional clubs coaching structure and system.
The alternative route is to join a local College Football Academy-usually for free-(perhaps you will just need to pay for the kit )-and play for College teams that are linked into a professional club.
These teams are involved in the F.A. Youth conference league and/or English Colleges.
Their are very strict guidlines set by the English,Scottish, Welsh and N.Irish F.A's regarding most Academy or Centre of Excellence scholars who are at pro clubs and participate in the Premier Academy and Football Alliance leagues.
A player at one of the above will, eventually be signed as a Pro-either in his first or second year as a scholar, or-in the vast majority of cases-be released by the club during this period, to attend what are called 'exit' trials, that take place at official venues, once or twice a year.
It is mainly here that most scouts, coaches, and/or education-welfare officers from Professional clubs will be in attendance.
The main reason is to support and help players being released to hopefully find another interested Pro/semi-Pro club who will accept them. Also to discover any talent that may have been overlooked and/or to watch a specific player, because they know of, or have been told about them.
AJFA was formed in 2001 and is run by Aaron Jacob who decided to start an independent 'Academy', to recruit and coach some of the best young players in London and the South East to send to trials at professional clubs.
Initially the academy was linked to various sides but eventually became an exclusive Youth Development Centre to Charlton Athletic, who were in the Premiership-under Alan Curbishley- at that time. One of the youth players who attended our YDC, and is now a successful 1st team professional at Norwich City FC, was Russell Martin.
Whilst the YDC was running –seeing over 150 boys every week-Aaron was invited to become a coach with Charlton's Youth Academy, working with players from U/9 to U/16 and playing matches against other youth sides such as Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Fulham, West Ham, Portsmouth and others.
He also then became the 'Youth Development Squad' Coach for Charlton which involved talent identification, finding youth players to enter the academy section of the club.
Whilst continuing to coach in the academy and the Y.D. squad at Charlton, Aaron was offered the position of Head Coach at the Lewisham College Football Academy in 2004.
(Please feel free to type in "Aaron Jacob Lewisham College" in Google or other search engines to find out more)
You can also visit: http://www.lewisham.ac.uk/courseshome/sports-studies to see the comments of one of the college players at the time, who attended the Dallas Cup in 2007 and 2008.
This team eventually played in the highest league outside of Pro Academy status,-the F.A.Youth Conference League(we would eventually play under the Welling United F.C. banner as all Colleges in this league are required to associate themselves with a pro or semi pro club. Lewisham now play under the Charlton Athletic F.C. banner)
These boys had a host of qualified and experienced 'top flight' coaches working with them from Charlton,Fulham,Spurs Chelsea and West Ham for three days a week on their timetable.
During this time we were very proud to have seen three of our players go on to become full time Pro’s or signed scholars-Max Gradel (Leeds United) Mitchell Nelson (Colchester Utd) and Dominic Green (Peterborough Utd)
Whilst Aaron was at Lewisham it was decided to find a tournament of world class proportions for our youth players to go to outside of the UK.
We had already been very successful at tough U/19 tournaments in Spain (The Barcelona Cup-runners up 2004) Holland-(Bon Giorno Cup winners twice in 2005 - Max Gradel voted top player of the tournament with 12 goals- & 2006) and indeed the prestigious Umbro Cup in Manchester which we won in 2005. All these successes can be referenced on the web using search engines.
In the end it was decided to go to a whole new level and visit the Dallas Cup International tournament in the USA.
In our first year-2007- we had a wonderful team (including Dominic Green) but could not get used to the conditions.We eventually got beaten by a team who were runners up in the final.(The U/19 Super Group was won by Sao Paolo of Brazil beating Chelsea in the final).
The following year 2008-we got to the QF’s and again got beaten by the same team we faced the previous year-Houston Dynamos-who this time went on to win the Final.(The U/19 Super Group was won by Liverpool )
It was at this point that the idea and concept to bring a 'United Kingdom' team made up of Youth players between U/16 and U/19 from regions throughout the UK was born.
The whole project is being put together by some very experienced and highly qualified scouts and coaches –both in the UK and in the USA-who are very excited at the prospect of finding a youth team of talented players to bring the U/19 category of the 'Modern Day' Dallas Cup back to Great Britain for the first time in its long and prestigeous history.
Another of our main aims are to give opportunities to young people to make lasting friendships, with others of their age, and experience the enjoyment of being hosted by US families in a whole new environment. Additionally, they will have a chance to impress College tutors in the USA looking to offer scholarships to candidates who they believe are of the right playing capability and academic level.
We felt it was also important to expose these young players to the feeling of being part of a football training camp as a unified squad, participate in a fantastic international tournament, and be involved in a cultural exchange program that they will never forget for the rest of their lives.
The journey has just begun,…. the very first group of young talented football players, as a combined UK squad, will be chosen to go to the Dallas Cup in 2012.
We Invite You To Be A Part Of It
THE SEARCH IS ON......
