by Thom Kiddle and Phil Town
Playing in the Barclays English Premier League is a dream shared by many ambitious players around the world. For most of us it’s nothing more than a dream, but what about those who are the closest to achieving that goal – the apprentice footballers at the country’s top clubs? You can become an apprentice, or trainee, at the age of 16, and most young players come straight up from the clubs’ academies (training programmes for schoolboys as young as nine years old) or from overseas. However, it’s a hard life and there’s no guarantee of success. On average only one in ten apprentices actually makes it to the big time and gets a full contract. So what’s it like for a young trainee at a top club? What are the ups and downs of life as a football apprentice? And what are the sacrifices they have to make to pursue their dream?
Most trainees don’t stay at home when they’re signed by a club. Instead, they stay in a club hostel – sharing rooms in a dormitory – or in ‘digs’ – living with a local family close to the club. The day starts early for apprentices – they have to arrive at the training ground at around 9 am, long before the professionals. The first job is to prepare things for the first-team players – often a trainee is responsible for the kit and boots of one or two professional players. This means getting their tracksuits, shirts, shorts and socks ready, and even cleaning their boots after each training session!
When the players have gone off to the training pitch, the work isn’t finished for the apprentices; instead the cleaning continues. The many cleaning jobs include sweeping and mopping the toilets, dressing rooms, showers, boot room, weight room, sauna room, manager’s office, and corridors! For the rest of the morning – from about 10.30 am until midday, the trainees have their own training session, working on ball skills and fitness, but not with the superstars of the first team – no tackling Cesc Fábregas or Dimitar Berbatov!
After lunch, many of the first-year trainees have more cleaning duties – scrubbing the professionals’ boots and taking kit to the laundry. For apprentices, the afternoon is a time for education off the pitch. Most young players are encouraged to go to a local college to take courses which will help them if their footballing dream doesn’t come true. However, very few of them doubt that they’ll make the grade, and studies are not always taken seriously!
Dinner is served early at the club hostel – around five o’clock – and the evenings are the trainees’ own. Unfortunately, most clubs have strict rules about what’s allowed: no pubs or clubs, no nights at friend’s houses, and definitely no girls! So after TV or video games, it’s bedtime at the hostel before 11.00 pm.
It doesn’t sound too glamorous so far, does it? So why do apprentices put up with it for several years when only 10% of them will make a living from football? The answer lies in the rewards on offer. Of course, for many the idea of playing for their favourite club is motivation enough. But add to that the fabulous wages top players can earn, and the celebrity lifestyles of superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo, and the attraction is clear. As Manchester United captain Gary Neville says of his trainee days, “It's a short career of 10-12 years at the top and I think that out of a 70-year life, it isn't a great deal to give up when you consider the rewards."
Neville says that he lived like a recluse during the time that he was an apprentice at Man United. “My dad said to me for two years to just live like a saint … I never went out for two years. I never had an alcoholic drink in that time. I never went to pubs or clubs.”
It’s not just the lack of a social life that’s hard for trainees, though. Many of the young players at professional clubs complain that they are the lowest in the club, looked down on by everyone. The professionals can be hard on the young lads who clean their boots, often calling them into the dressing room to make fun of them. Many trainees say it seems that the job they do of cleaning is more important than becoming a better footballer. Here’s one apprentice at a Championship club: “Whereas football should be the main thing, it’s the jobs that seem to be the main thing and the football seems to fit around the jobs you do. I know we've got a lot of jobs to do but we're primarily here to play football, not to clean people’s boots or to clean the toilets or whatever.” Not a happy trainee!
Whatever the downside, there’s never any shortage of youngsters who would love to be a trainee at a Barclays Premier League club. Meanwhile, clubs are realising how important it is to give their trainees a proper education outside football. UEFA rules now state that for European club competitions, clubs must have eight players in their squad who have come through an apprenticeship scheme (four through the club’s academy, four through a similar scheme in the same country). Life may be looking up for the young dreamers; the next Wayne Rooney may be cleaning boots as you read this!
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