Here at UK Football Schools our aim is to provide assistance to players and families across the world who are looking to further their development and progression in football, we do this by recommending the UK’s best football boarding schools, the best football academies in Europe and the best football universities where players can also continue with their academic progression too.
Despite the pandemic it has been an incredible year for our UK Football Schools players, we have had some of our football boarding schools in the UK go on trials with professional clubs in the UK and Europe, we have had players represent their national teams in the qualification for the FIFA 2022 World Cup next year in Qatar and in the past month we have had three players go on to sign with professional clubs in Europe.
Today we are celebrating the fantastic announcement that UK Football Schools player Joe H has gone on to sign for League One club Fleetwood Town (FTFC). Joe and his family reached out to UK Football Schools in August 2020 before the schools returned for the new academic year looking for a football boarding school in the UK that would firstly allow him to obtain an excellent education where he could achieve excellent A Level grades to get into university but where he could develop his football in an environment similar to that of a professional club.
After speaking with our enquiries team, we put Joe’s dad Andrew in touch with one of ours UK Football Schools specialists Chris who ran through some of the schools best suited to Joe after discussing his requirements. Joe was already in an excellent private school near Manchester, but this school couldn’t provide the football platform he needed to excel to the next level and couldn’t accommodate the trials that Joe was receiving from EFL and non-league clubs. After speaking with Chris, Joe and his family were drawn to one of recommendations sent through due to the specialist nature of the school running a programme for players aged 15 to 18 as well as the links they had to clubs in the North West of the UK. It’s not a school the family had heard of before but thought it would be the perfect location for Joe’s next move.
During his Year 12 year at the football boarding school in England Joe has enjoyed studying on the A Level programme whilst being in the football programme. His previous school is very well known for its academic level which he has carried on at his new school but Joe also had the chance to be training full time as well, most weeks he is training 5 days a week with professional club coaches, training on state of the art multi-million pound facilities, the standard has been excellent as the players there many have come from academy backgrounds internationally, he had also been in on trial with FTFC so he had additional training sessions with them, the school have been very flexible and accommodating to allow this opportunity to happen. The middle part of the year was affected due to Covid and the lockdown however he has had the opportunity to play against clubs such as Burnley, Preston and Salford, there are not many places like it where young players get these opportunities to showcase against big UK clubs regularly throughout the season.
After the school year finished at the football boarding school in England and after impressing FTFC on his trial they offered him a one-year extended schoolboy contract which Joe has taken up, this will mean he is in the club full time but continuing with his education at the school so he can finish his A Levels. Joe has done incredibly well and our UK Football Schools team are extremely proud. For Andrew he has ‘found the school to have been fantastic, they have an inclusive atmosphere, everybody supports and encourages each other to do well and any opportunity that has risen for Joe to go down to FTFC they have worked hard to make it happen. For us the football programme and the school has done exactly what is has said on the tin’.
Joe is still only 17 and has just started his Year 13 year, there is a long way to go but with the fantastic work he has put in so far, he is surrounded by excellent coaching and club staff providing a supportive environment not like any other professional club he has been in, but also very supportive school staff who will help Joe achieve the best academic grades he can so when he finishes his time with the school he will have a very strong football and academic background to take him on his next steps in the summer next year.