0.06 percent.
It’s such a small number that it’s hard to fathom.
But it’s a young boy’s chance to become a professional footballer in this country.
Only six out of every 10,000 rate.
Those odds are like dealing four aces in poker. Or finding a pearl in an oyster shell. Or becoming an astronaut and traveling into space.
in an exclusive interview Sky Sports News. Chasing the dream documentary, Trent Alexander-Arnold “You have a better chance of winning the lottery than of becoming a professional football player.”
1.65m boys play our national sport. Less than one percent of them make it to the academy of a professional club.
Of these, less than one in ten (nine per cent) go on to play professionally, with the numbers even lower in the Premier League. only 1.5 percent of academy graduates will play one match in the top division.
Liverpool star Trent Alexander-Arnold has spoken exclusively to Sky Sports News about the “embarrassing” problem with football.
Armed with these facts, we embarked on what became the largest, most comprehensive investigation ever undertaken. Sky Sports News.
The original idea was born Tony Pulis, who approached us with his own experience and many questions.
After more than 400 games as a player and more than 1,000 matches under the belt as a manager, he has always been concerned about the welfare of young academy players and the general ‘failure’ rate.
Former West Brom and Stoke City boss Tony Pulis has expressed concern over the welfare of players
Now with two grandsons in the system, he wanted to know what football as an industry was doing to promote and support both those who make it and those who don’t.
What started as a 15-minute mini-documentary quickly snowballed question, it seemed to lead to another question that needed to be addressed.
Over the course of nine months, we’ve conducted exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names in the game, legendary managers such as Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti and: Harry Redknapp.
Chasing a dream. elite managers
Sunday, November 24 at 7:30 p.m
Elite level players incl Alexander-Arnold, Kyle Walker, Levi Colville, Ollie Watkins, Jordan Pickford, Tyrone Mings and much, much more.
England’s Kyle Walker spoke to Sky Sports News about his experiences during his early football career
We also heard some heartbreaking stories from young men and their families who didn’t quite make the grade.
The series includes the first television interviews with the mother of Matthew Langton, who committed suicide after being released by Mansfield; With Lewis Reid, who came very close to suicide as he tried to overcome rejection at Ipswich, and Moses Swaibu, who, after leaving Crystal Palace’s academy, fell into organized crime and was jailed for 16 months for match-fixing.
The documentary also features behind-the-scenes footage at many clubs’ academies, big and small Manchester United to: Exeter City, Nottingham Forest to: Blackburn Rovers, Crystal Palace to: Chesterfield.
There are also exclusive interviews with English football power brokers.
We spoke to the person we just appointed Thomas Tuchel as England’s new manager, the FA’s technical director John McDermott, who gave us his first TV interview since taking up the role in January 2021, as well as Premier League director of football Neil Saunders.
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Thomas Tuchel says his goal is to win the World Cup for England and he has inherited an “outstanding” squad of players.
The EFL also features heavily in the involvement of the CEO, Director of Football and Chief Operating Officers.
You can also read the story of Curtis Anderson, who won the U17 World Cup with England Phil Fodenwho is now a financial advisor specializing in guiding current football scholars.
Phil Foden after winning the U17 World Cup with England in 2017
What we ended up with was three and a half hours of fascinating content and a seven-part documentary series looking at all aspects of youth football in this country: the good, the bad and the seemingly impossible.
Because that was our starting point. Is the ambition to become a professional footballer a near-impossible dream? It’s widely known that only a tiny minority of young men ever make a career out of the game. And yet that doesn’t stop so many from trying.
There are millions of young men”Chasing a dream”.
Watch Sky Sports Premier League and: Sky Sports Football Showing from November 24 Sky documentaries from December 2 to December 5.
All episodes are available on demand from November 24.
