One of our sons had the privilege of training with Premiere League Wolverhampton Wolves for a week in England! He trained with Wolverhampton Coaches as well as with their team and at U11. The players in England were what we would call U11/U12 as we have a different year calculation than they do. His select team also played several 7v7 games during our time there. 2 “friendlies” and a tournament. If you follow or listen to many youth soccer blogs or Facebook pages they talk about any travel outside of tournaments in the states as a money grab. Are these trips expensive? Yes they are. Do you need to evaluate if you should or shouldnt make it happen for your player – absolutely! Just as you do with which soccer club, which soccer camp, which out of state tournament you perform a cost/benefit analysis.
In our case, we knew ahead of time we would be able to participate in most experiences alsongside our son who was 10 at the time. Our soccer club has a unique relationship with this Academy, therefore we were familiar with the Coaches and their style of play already.
I used to be of the mindset it is a money grab – and I would still hold to that if you take a team of U.S. kids to another country to play other U.S. kids. There are plenty of tournaments in the U.S. to do this. But when they say that it is IN the culture abroad – so true! The game is just different there and the players are ‘built’ different. Our team competed fairly well – they won 3rd place! Maybe they could have faired better, maybe not with more mental prep. They were a little off as they anticipated all the calls we have here in the U.S., but a regular foul is what would be a red card here. All that to say – they got to play kids their age or 1 year older who have grown up playing grassroots/rec soccer then have been accepted into an Academy. Those kids fight for their spot – Wolverhampton, Arsenal, Liverpool, Walsall FC, Leicester City, Shelbourne and the Toffees. So what is different in other countries, is they can trade children for millions of dollars, and invest that money back into hopefully training the .01% and earning and reinvesting again.
We knew it was different when a parent of a Wolverhampton player asked us how many Coaches we have. Due to the amount of money in this sport, even at the youth level, these players had multiple coaches, nutritionists, psychologists. I do believe hard work is a huge part of the greatness equation. However, there is unarguably God-given talent that players have or don’t have. Here in the US certain kids do have the same resources; but at the expense of their parents. Personal trainers, Coach’s private training, googling or even hiring a sports nutritionist, strength and agility training.
It was an eye opening experience for all of us in different ways. To see how physical the game is meant to be played, to see the finesse that regular neighbor kids have on the ball….If an opportunity presents itself, and your family can afford it – go on the trip!
