Designing elite football programmes that produce quality athletes and future ready adults: incorporating social emotional learning and career development

ABSTRACT

This article uses a positive youth development (PYD) perspective to recommend a number of programme design strategies for improving the mental health and wellbeing, future readiness, and performance of elite youth footballers in the academy system. Elite youth footballers refers to the estimated 12,000 boys (aged 8–21) who are contracted to professional academies at any one time, with many of these youth experiencing negative outcomes during their time within the academy system and beyond (e.g. psychological distress, inferior academic outcomes, academic disengagement, foreclosed identities, impaired social and emotional development). The recommendations are framed around key PYD competencies with the primary goal being to increase resilience, proactivity, and adaptability amongst these youth.

In the face of growing concern for the well-being of elite youth footballers, much work is being done to optimize the developmental environments responsible for nurturing their physical, technical, tactical, and psychological growth.¹ However, recent empirical evidence suggests that the academies housing youth fall short of their holistic development aspirations, and are failing to fully prepare many youth for the challenges of pursuing a career in professional football. For example, research has shown that some youth are experiencing psychological distress, inferior academic outcomes, academic disengagement, foreclosed identities, and impaired social and emotional development.² The purpose of this article is to provide recommendations and considerations for expanding development programming within academies that not only develop elite athletic skills and performance, but develop proactive, flexible, resilient youth who are ready to tackle the inevitable career and life challenges that await them both within and beyond their experience in academy and/or professional football. Whilst the focus of this current article is on the professional football academy system in the United Kingdom, a highly developed and structured model, the implications are highly applicable to various other youth developmental programming (e.g. Rugby Union Academies, NCAA).

Traditional approaches of youth development often rely on deficit-models that emphasize the vulnerability of the adolescent period, and seek to ameliorate the plethora of problems observed in youth (e.g. substance use and abuse, risky sexual behaviours, psychological disorders).³ Positive youth development (PYD) perspectives represent a paradigm shift from deficit perspectives by positing a proactive approach to prevention that strives to cultivate individual strengths and resources that function to mitigate adversity and promote a rich, full and meaningful life. Put more concisely, PYD is concerned with thriving as opposed to surviving. This mitigation of adverse consequences and fostering of thriving can be conceptualized as resilience. Whilst some have conceptualized resilience as an innate, stable, fixed trait, PYD considers resilience as a malleable consequence of various attributes and processes that are cultivated by relationships and external resources.⁴ Therefore, by being intentional about the construction of the ecological systems surrounding youth, resilience can be developed. The recommendations within this article are firmly rooted in the PYD framework and seek to engage youth football players in proactive learning experiences that propel them towards a trajectory of thriving across contexts. Given the increasing evidence in support of the challenges facing this population, a PYD perspective that seeks to proactively inoculate youth against these challenges is timely/needed.

In order to familiarize the reader with this population and the rationale behind this article, we will first summarize the evidence supporting the various challenges facing elite youth footballers. Attention will then be directed towards current developmental programming, and more specifically, how academies state they are currently supporting the holistic development of youth. Finally, through a PYD lens, we will propose recommendations aimed at addressing the limitations of current programming as supported by empirical evidence.

Challenges facing elite youth footballers

With over 1.5 million young males involved in organized programmes at any one time, football dominates the landscape of youth sport in the United Kingdom.⁵ For those with high aspirations, the academy system represents the primary pathway to professional football. Football academies are best conceptualized as extensions of professional clubs that function as elite development environments facilitating skill development and progression towards senior football for young players. Approximately 12,000 boys (aged 9–21) are currently enrolled in this system, with 1000ʹs more youth participating in development centres across the country.⁶ This process of developing players is known as the performance pathway, with elite youngsters progressing through three distinct phases within the system: the foundation phase (U5 to U11), the youth development phase (U12 to U16), and the professional development phase (U17 to U21). Exposure to coaching across each phase of the pathway is aligned with the correlation between frequency of deliberate practice and the achievement of expertise, with training volume modified to satisfy the quota of 10,000 hours (i.e. U5 to U11 4–8 hours/week, U12 to U16 12–16 hours/week, U17 to U21 16 hours/week). Each academy is also independently audited and subsequently categorized from 1–4, with this categorization reflecting differences in the developmental environment, specifically coaching and educational support. Higher categorization is highly correlated with economic superiority, as clubs with deeper resources are able to construct the facilities and developmental programming to meet the criteria of higher categories. Category 1 academies provide the most comprehensive development programming, with contracted players having additional access to coaching, as well as opportunities for in-house full-time education programming from U12. Exposure to coaching diminishes with each level, as do levels of educational support. Finally, category 4 academies only focus on coaching and educational support for players in the professional development phase (U17 to 21). While the academy system functions as the solitary developmental pipeline to professional football in the United Kingdom, similar negative experiences are reported by youth across all levels.⁷

The inexorability of deselection

Academy football is tremendously stressful in large part due to the constant threat of ‘deselection’ (i.e. release) which occurs annually when clubs decide whether to renew the contract of each player. For example, for the 12,000 players selected into academies, the probability of securing a professional career in football is less than 0.5%.⁸ The majority of deselection occurs during early adolescence, with as many as 75% of the academy youth released between the ages of 13 and 19.⁹ Continuing beyond 16 marks a critical transition into the professional development phase of the academy when youth are awarded a 2-year Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence (ASE) which is considered the final step before receiving a professional contract. This transition also occurs simultaneously with a transition out of the mainstream education system to begin training full-time. Approximately 600 players from this elite group are released annually, with 80% falling out of the top five tiers of English football by the age of 21.¹⁰ These statistics expose a harsh reality that one’s likelihood of securing a professional career in football is exceedingly low. One consequence of the system is that most youth become separated from advanced education and career development opportunities and consequently are less prepared to transition into alternative occupational opportunities.

Mental health difficulties in academy and professional football

Another consequence of deselection and increasing performance pressure is the prevalence of mental health difficulties. The transition from the youth development phase to the professional development phase is characterized by increased physical and mental demands.¹¹ A perceived imbalance between these demands and the players’ perception of coping resources has been shown to induce high levels of stress.¹² Deselection from the system represents perhaps the biggest mental health challenge for young players and has been shown to induce severe psychological and emotional consequences. Specifically, over half of the players endure clinical levels of anxiety, depression, and social dysfunction following release.¹³ Even amongst those selected to progress, a sizable portion exhibit similar clinical symptoms and remain at increased risk for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders exacerbated by constant scrutiny over performance and conduct.¹⁴ Some youth have been critical of the rhetoric surrounding mental and emotional well being in professional football, as well as the limited support offered during transitions.¹⁵ The stigma surrounding mental health within football has been identified as a major barrier to leveraging support when experiencing mental health challenges, which has led to some elite youth footballers concealing their emotional experiences from those within their immediate and extended social support system.¹⁶

Platts (2012) conducted interviews and focus groups with over 300 academy youth from 21 clubs across the English football pyramid. Within these interactions with Platt, players reported some club staff as promoting the notion that discussion of mental health and well-being concerns should be avoided. Furthermore, some players reported living in fear that any disclosure of personal information will be transmitted to others within the organization. According to Platts, this has engendered a culture of mistrust within the academy system, exacerbating apprehensions and withholding players from disclosing pertinent, welfare-related information. Also, fear of the potential ramifications of personal disclosure (e.g. deselection) forces players to seek support and guidance from external sources. However, numerous players remain unaware of such resources, with psychological distress subsequently exacerbated in the absence of clinical support.

Furthermore, the mental health implications of football are not limited to those in the academy system, but also extend to the senior game. Recent studies of professional football players have reported that 26% experience anxiety and/or depression during their career, with this number increasing to 35% in retirement, suggesting the transition out of football as exacerbating psychological distress.¹⁷ Also, the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) reported the number of professional players seeking mental health support increased by over 150% from 2016 to 2017.¹⁸ This has been accompanied by a recent surge in professional players publicly disclosing their challenges with various psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and stress-related illness.¹⁹ Similar to academy footballers, professional players have described the daily struggle to ‘survive’ their internal experience of mental health whilst navigating an environment permeated by machismo.²⁰ Internal barriers to seeking support (e.g. shame, fear of rejection), exacerbated by the football environment contribute to feelings of isolation and helplessness that leave many academy and professional players deprived of mental and emotional literacy, and thus devoid of the internal and external resources required to navigate critical moments. These critical moments can be conceptualized as those times where psychological distress is induced via a salient change in context. For an academy footballer, these moments could include being released, being dropped from the team, moving away from home, being appointed as team captain, experiencing physical injury or illness, and/or family/relationship difficulties.²¹ In some cases, the consequences are even more severe. In March 2013, following years of mental health difficulties, a young man released by an academy at age sixteen decided to take his own life. The inference from the coroner, that his release from the academy system represented the single most salient factor leading to suicide, is perhaps the most powerful indication of the potential psychological challenges facing those enrolled in the system.²² This evidence from aspiring, current, and former professional players indicates a yearning for mental health support that is particularly salient during transitions out of the game. When utilized, psychological support during transitions out of football has proven effective in precluding negative psychological outcomes, further reinforcing the need for the provision of such services.²³ However, this kind of tertiary approach is reactive and thus does not represent the most adaptive model. A more proactive, primary approach, in which aspiring players are equipped with the necessary resources (i.e. resilience skills) before these critical moments could ultimately foster more adaptive outcomes, with this type of prevention representing a form of immunization against the potential negative consequences of transitions out of the game.

Athletic identity

Various environmental factors inherent in the academy system render elite adolescent football players particularly susceptible to experiencing psychological distress following deselection. Elements of the system may inadvertently squash the identity of those enrolled into something unitary, narrowing a young athletes perspective so considerably, that they begin to perceive themselves wholly as what they do (e.g. football player) as opposed to one of many roles and interests that make up their identity.²⁴ Whilst a strong athletic identity can be adaptive (e.g. increased self-discipline, increased health behaviours) and add value and meaning to life, an overdeveloped athlete identity has been suggested as having deleterious effects on mental health, with these negative consequences most commonly manifesting in critical moments.²⁵ These critical events can disrupt an individual’s athletic identity by bringing to awareness a lack of alternative roles, activities, interests, and identities.²⁶ Deselection, can significantly impact the psychological well-being of athletes. More specifically, players released from the system have been shown to experience significantly higher emotional and psychological disturbances such as anxiety, fear, depression, anger, loss of self-worth and an inability to extract meaning and fulfilment from life.²⁷ Furthermore, an internalized and foreclosed athletic identity can limit the exploration of other career identities and opportunities.²⁸ To compound the challenges for aspiring youth footballers, empirical evidence has suggested that psychological distress in response to career transition is exacerbated when the transition is unanticipated and/or involuntary (e.g. injury, deselection).²⁹ Also, younger athletes may be more susceptible to post-career adjustment difficulties and psychological distress.³⁰ This evidence suggests that given the uncertain nature of academy football, academy youth may be particularly vulnerable to the consequences of an over developed athletic identity.

Value of education

The guidelines of the Academy of Sporting Excellence (ASE) mandates that all enrolled players complete an educational qualification overseen by the English Premier League’s (EPL) educational department and League Football Education (LFE). Recent data suggests that despite a few outliers pursuing AS or A-level qualifications (1%), the majority of apprentices are pursuing a Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) National Certification (BNC; 37.6%) or BTEC National Diploma (BND; 27.1%).³¹ The preference for these qualifications may have significant ramifications for the future pursuit of higher education and employment. A plethora of divergent educational qualifications exist in the United Kingdom, thus University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) tariff points are used to translate one’s qualifications and grades into a numeric value that serves as the reference point for Universities in determining course entry requirements.³² Compared to AS and A-level, the UCAS points awarded for obtaining a BTEC or BND qualification is below the average required for entry into universities in the United Kingdom.³³ It is salient to note that whilst completing an educational qualification is compulsory for those enrolled in the ASE, the type of qualification is determined by the individual. Therefore opting to pursue a qualification that is weighted less in UCAS tariff points, and thus inherently less challenging, highlights a potential issue surrounding educational attitudes in the academy system. There is concern that many youth perceive their academies as actively devaluing education, with players reporting at best derisive, and at worst highly critical and hostile attitudes towards their compulsory requirements. This results in some perceiving education as less relevant and taking valuable time away from their physical, technical and tactical training.³⁴

Although the EPL and LFE stipulate that around 12 hours of education are completed by players a week in conjunction with football training, there is evidence that only 20% of players meet these requirements.³⁵ More specifically, most players enrolled in BTEC courses are confined to a qualification in sport studies programme, with the underlying notion that knowledge gained (e.g. nutrition, physiology, psychology, etc.) will augment their development as a football player.³⁶ Platt (2012, pp.199) suggested that in this environment, education acts as ‘a metaphor for occupational failure’, that is often reflected by the attitude of prominent gatekeepers (e.g. club staff). There is concern expressed by some players that clubs may perceive education ambitions as undermining progression towards a professional football career. Furthermore, by emphasizing education and engaging in post-career planning, players are admitting defeat in pursuit of a professional contract.³⁷ Restricting access to education and vocational training programmes that enable youth to expand their future occupational options reduce the perceived range of realistic career and life opportunities when transitioning out of sport.³⁸

Current Youth Development Programming

Optimizing the development of talented elite youth athletes is most often predicated on the honing of technical (i.e. intricate motor skills to perform an action), physical (i.e. ability to perform a variety of movements with precision and confidence), tactical (i.e. the actions and decisions made during competition), and psychological attributes (i.e. mental skills). Deliberate practice, the act of engaging in highly structured activities with the explicit goal of enhancing performance, has long been cited as the most powerful antecedent of technical and tactical development.³⁹ Examples of deliberate practice activities include a specific tactical task in football to increase the coordination between the defensive line, and subsequently the efficiency of the defence, or a specific technical task in football to enhance a player’s ball manipulation. The key to deliberate practice is focused repetition of challenging tasks immediately followed by specific expert feedback (e.g. a coach). It has been suggested that those exposed to high levels of deliberate practice will enhance their chances of developing into an elite athlete, thus this theory has become the framework informing the pedagogy of many professional academies over the world.

Physical development is concerned with the long-term athletic development, and the prevention and minimization of injury. The National Strength and Conditioning Association present pillars of successful long-term physical development that include: recognizing the idiosyncrasies and non-linear nature of growth and development; individualizing training programmes; an early focus on motor skills and muscular strength; the ability to sample a variety of physical activities to enhance a broad range of motor skills; the use of monitoring and assessment of physical development; and the positioning of health and wellbeing as of central importance.⁴⁰ When professional academies adhere to these recommendations, and the provision of physical development amongst elite youth is overseen by qualified professionals, optimal physical development is expected to follow.

More recently, the cultivation of psychological skills has been added to the list of essential preparation areas alongside technical, tactical, and physical training.⁴¹ Whilst various approaches to psychological development have been adopted in professional academies, service provision has been heavily performance-focused to date, with mental skills training (i.e. relaxation, concentration, visualization, self-talk, mental routines) and the recent traction of mindfulness-based approaches the most commonly utilized.⁴²

In addition, many academies are beginning to acknowledge their ‘assets’ as people first and athlete’s second. Consequently, new curricula is being implemented to address mental health and well-being.⁴³ It is important to note however that differences exist dependent on the status of the organization, with academy players connected to EPL clubs exposed to different developmental programming than those connected to English Football League (EFL) clubs. In 2012 the EPL introduced the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) as a long-term strategy designed to enhance the development of home-grown academy players.⁴⁴ The EPPP was integrated into the existing academy model and touted as a framework capable of engendering world-class youth development via enhanced games programmes, holistic education, coaching development, and elite performance strategies. The education function is of particular relevance and is described as a holistic approach to learning facilitated by inspirational and innovative teaching that promotes the technical, tactical, physical, mental, lifestyle and welfare development of all players.

In addition, ASE’s League Football Education (LFE) offers all clubs with personal development and life skills programming for youth through face-to-face delivery, online modules, and online resources. Topics include equality & diversity, finance, identity, inspiration, mental health, Ramadan awareness, sexual health, social media, and well-being.⁴⁵ Also, LFE has recently secured access to ‘Start’ for all current and former Apprentices. Start is an online learning resource that delivers comprehensive information, advice and guidance to help youth manage their futures and progress. More specifically, it allows youth to preview the working environment in a plethora of jobs, whilst also detailing the skills and qualification required to secure a job. Both the EPL and LFE also partner with various organizations that function as support services for young players, with the contact details listed on their websites.

Future Readiness as a Development Goal

We propose that football academies can simultaneously support elite athletes in meeting their performance goals, develop the skills needed to manage their mental health needs, and prepare them to be ready to successfully transition out of football by adopting a ‘future ready’ approach to training and development. Future readiness represents a new paradigm in career development whereby the focus is on designing programmes and services that build youth capacity to become more proactive, resilient and adaptable as they manage their football training demands and expectations as well as consider their future postsecondary education and career pathways. Proactivity refers to the ability of youth to set personal, meaningful goals both in sport and their future as well as take advantage of training and education opportunities that optimize their ability to successfully pursue those goals. Resiliency refers to individual strengths and resources (e.g. self-efficacy and self-determination) that allow youth to demonstrate perseverance when faced with performance challenges, injury or the pressure of potential deselection. Adaptability refers to one’s ability to work towards multiple performance and life goals such that youth are more effectively able to manage life challenges and take advantage of new opportunities. The following sections outline the attributes that could facilitate future readiness in this population. In line with a PYD perspective, recommendations are intended to target malleable attributes and processes that proactively buffer against the challenges highlighted in this article.

Expanding Identity Development

Facilitating elite performance, developing the psychological and emotional strategies to manage the pressure and stress inherent in academy football, and preparing youth to successfully transition out of football can be achieved through efforts to develop a more holistic and robust identity.⁴⁶ Indeed, maintaining a single athletic identity remains one of the most critical issues amongst academy footballers. The fragile nature of academy football means that deselection is always a possibility, and when youth have limited exploration of other career identities and opportunities, the transition out of football can induce significant psychological distress. The literature indicates that the development of plural, multifaceted players represents a way of buffering the potential negative impact of critical moments such as physical injury or deselection. Possible selves theory is a lens through which to approach identity expansion amongst academy youth.⁴⁷ This theory suggest that all youth possess hoped-for selves (i.e. who I wish, dream, or aspire to become), expected selves (i.e. who I will probably become), and feared selves (i.e. who I am afraid of or wish to avoid becoming) that exist as projections of the future (i.e. images, lifestyles, roles, specific goals). It is suggested that these selves inform the motivation and behaviour of youth, ultimately shaping their career decision-making. Research suggests that well-conceived and complex possible selves (i.e. selves imagined in vivid detail) are more likely to be realized. Indeed as specificity increases, so too does motivation to engage in activities that move you towards the realization of possible selves and avoidance of the feared selves.⁴⁸ Academy footballers would benefit from opportunities to intentionally explore viable pathways that can be pursued simultaneously alongside their football career, as well as alternatives should they transition out of the system. This could function to expand the number of hoped for selves, increase congruence between hoped-for selves and expected selves, and mobilize action towards these. Indeed establishing and engaging in new interests and/or vocations has been shown to prohibit the manifestation of psychological distress following deselection and career termination.⁴⁹ Furthermore, expanding the identity of players can also be conceptualized as a resilience skill. More specifically, youth who are able to redefine their identity (i.e. decrease the prominence of their athletic identity) and proactively foster other identity dimensions before a transition out of the game occurs are more successful in avoiding identity issues and the aforementioned psychological distress.⁵⁰ Thus the provision of psychological and emotional support in developing a multifaceted identity is crucial for elite adolescent football players in the academy context.

Self-determination

Self-determination theory (SDT) posits that humans have innate psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness that determine our motivation to engage in specific tasks.⁵¹ Intrinsic motivation, when one engages in an activity freely with a full sense of volition and personal control, is suggested as the most positive form of human motivation and is fostered when the social environment nurtures these psychological needs.⁵² Intrinsic motivation has been linked to a variety of positive outcomes in both academic and performance contexts. More specifically, intrinsic motivation has been positively associated with academic and performance outcomes, well-being, perceived competence, affective states, and task perseverance, as well as negatively associated with stress and anxiety.⁵³ When youth feel a sense of belonging and connection to proximal adults then they are more likely to autonomously engage in tasks, thus relatedness represents the critical variable facilitating intrinsic motivation.⁵⁴ The salience of adult-youth connections is also inherent in the positive youth development (PYD) framework. PYD emphasizes that positive development manifests as a function of various attributes and processes that are cultivated by developmental assets that exist in the multiple ecologies that surround youth.⁵⁵ The nurturance provided by meaningful adult-youth interactions represents the critical process facilitating positive youth development.⁵⁶ More specifically, meaningful connections with adult stakeholders in various locations within the community are required for youth to thrive, with these adults considered ‘ecological assets’. Thus, academies must attempt to satisfy young football players’ need for relatedness through enhancing connections with teammates, support staff, and other salient adults in their ecologies.

Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is a concept rooted in Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory and refers to an individual’s belief in their ability to successfully execute behaviours to produce the desired outcome.⁵⁷ Our efficacy beliefs indicate the confidence we have in our ability to exert control over our behaviour and social environment, with these cognitive evaluations subsequently influencing our behaviour (e.g. goals to strive for, energy expended towards these goals). Empirically, elevated self-efficacy has been positively associated with career, academic and life outcomes.⁵⁸ More specifically, those with higher efficacy beliefs engage in more self-exploration, develop favourable vocational identities and career commitment are more motivated, engaged and proactive, achieve higher academic outcomes, perform better athletically, and experience less psychological and physical distress.⁵⁹ Self-efficacy represents a salient concept in the context of academy football, as one’s belief in their ability to effectively overcome challenges determines their intention to approach or avoid situations. Furthermore, self-efficacy is domain-specific, and thus individuals possess various beliefs about their ability to engage in behaviours that produce specific outcomes in different contexts. Importantly, self-efficacy represents a malleable construct, thus, academies should seek to enhance the efficacy beliefs of aspiring football players across multiple contexts (e.g. football, academic, vocational).

Goal-setting

Goal setting is the ability of youth to actively identify and establish goals, optimize learning experiences to move towards those goals, and identify obstacles that may inhibit goal pursuit, and is of critical importance to development and performance.⁶⁰ Setting goals in pursuit of salient objectives has been shown to impact behavioural, cognitive, and affective outcomes. More specifically, setting goals directs attention towards task-relevant stimuli, increases effort and persistence in pursuit of goals, and fosters utilization of task-relevant strategies and knowledge.⁶¹ Returning to the notion of interrelatedness inherent in our model, it is proposed that goal-setting operates through these mechanisms to enhance self-efficacy, motivation, and performance in both academic and sporting contexts. Thus, developing the goal-setting capacities of academy footballers, in football, career, and personal domains, represents a fruitful avenue for holistic development.

Social Emotional Learning Skills

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is a pedagogical approach that addresses the recognition and regulation of emotions, appreciation of the perspective of others, establishing and maintaining positive interpersonal relationships, engaging in responsible decision-making and effectively managing interpersonal situations, all of which have widely been recognized as salient antecedents of academic and career success.⁶² Typically these skills are grouped into five interrelated sets of cognitive, affective and behavioural competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Empirical evidence has displayed the development of SEL skills as laying the foundation for a variety of long-term benefits. Specifically, enhanced social and emotional functioning has been displayed as increasing prosocial behaviour, empathy, and teamwork, improving academic and vocational performance, and reducing emotional distress among youth and adolescent populations.⁶³ These are all coveted outcomes both within and outside of football, therefore the development of SEL skills should be prioritized by academies. Furthermore, the academy experience is littered with physical and psychological challenges that when outweighing one’s perception of coping resources, can induce high levels of stress.⁶⁴ Shifting that imbalance between demands and stress management for their youth is crucial for academies, thus stress management (i.e. emotional regulation) represents an important outcome of developing social-emotional skills.

Developing Future Employability Skills

Success in education, employment and life is fostered through the cultivation of several non-academic, personal competencies (e.g. leadership, self-advocacy, SEL).⁶⁵ Furthermore, employability skills represent the battery of soft skills valued by employers (e.g. effective communication, enthusiasm, teamwork, work ethic, problem-solving, critical thinking, professional and organizational skills) considered critical antecedents of vocational success. In the context of athlete career transitions, engaging in career planning has been evidenced as buffering adjustment difficulties and psychological distress experienced following deselection and career termination.⁶⁶ The development of career readiness and management skills has been conceptualized as the assembly and mobilization of transition resources, with these newly developed attributes enhancing perceived control over the transition and consequently self-efficacy related to post-career adaption.⁶⁷ Currently, there is an absence of literature in regards to the presence of the aforementioned career planning, readiness and management skills in academy football players engaged in the professional development phase of the academy system. Despite this absence, their malleability and contribution towards facilitating adaptive outcomes in academic and vocational settings render them essential components of any developmental plan for this population.

Future readiness in action

The real-life story of Matthew* offers a case example of how promoting future readiness, in this example identity expansion and career planning, enabled him to cope with a potentially career-threatening injury. Matthew pursued a career in football his whole life, and after leaving school at 16 to join the ASE scheme of a professional club, he was on track to fulfilling his dream (Brunton, 2019). During the final year of his 2-year apprenticeship, Matthew would succumb to a physical injury that would limit his playing time. With limited opportunities to impress, Matthew was not offered a professional contract by his club, meaning that if he was unable to secure one elsewhere, he would be transitioning out of the game at 18 years of age. Matthew’s situation is not unique, and indeed he spoke to the struggles of his teammates and friends, who were experiencing high levels of distress and panic concerning the transition out of the system. However, Matthew’s experience was very different. Even before learning that he was to be released at the end of the season, Matthew began planning for life after football. He took 6 extra education units to ensure a place in higher education should the professional contract not materialize, a decision scarcely made by UK apprentices. He explored his interests and passions and identified university options both in the UK and in the USA that aligned with these. These efforts culminated in offers from 8 universities where he was invited to study mechanical engineering. This proactivity and future thinking allowed Matthew to handle the typically distressing experience of being released, and continue playing for the remainder of the season. Furthermore, Matthew stated that although he was yet to give up on his dream, the presence of a back-up plan allowed him to play free from the pressure and stress that typically accompanies academy football, and instead focus on enjoying the experience. Matthew identifies this freedom as contributing to a string of outstanding performances in the latter stages of the season that would ultimately secure him a professional contract with an EPL club.

Conclusion

Building youth capacity to become future ready represents a new paradigm in career development because it shifts away from career choice and decision-making practices and instead focuses on helping become ready to transfer from sport into a wide range of occupational and life opportunities. Figure 1 is a logic model detailing the components and outcomes of a future ready programme design. Although it is beyond the scope of this current article, it is important to consider methods of evaluating the efficacy of future ready programming, and it is hoped future research will address this salient aspect of programme design. Sport is well suited to a future ready perspective because many of the interpersonal and team building skills youth learn in athletics are the same ‘deep human’ (e.g. social emotional learning) skills that are fundamental in the world of work.⁶⁸ Deep human skills refer to a range of core social emotional learning proficiencies (CASEL, n.d) that allow youth to better recognize and regulate emotions, appreciate the perspective of others, establish and maintain positive interpersonal relationships, engage in responsible decision-making and effectively manage interpersonal situations, all skills that transfer to a multitude of contexts outside of sport. As a new career development paradigm, future ready activities offer a personalized sequence of PYD learning activities whereby youth learn how to identify the talent and skills they have learned both within and outside of sport, explore the wide range of occupations that align to those skills, and identify learning pathways that will enable them to pursue desirable future occupational opportunities.⁶⁹

Figure 1. Logic model for future readiness program design.

This new future ready career development paradigm is designed in response to the changing realities of the 21st-century vocational landscape. Indeed the lack of stability and non-linear nature of modern career opportunities created by economic disruptions, globalization, technological advancements, and legislation means that individuals must be in a state of constant readiness and willingness to transition through a succession of occupational opportunities.⁷⁰ As an occupation, the academy and professional football environment is one that epitomizes the transient nature of modern-day careers, therefore supporting the future readiness of this population is of vital importance. It is important to note, however, that the knowledge, skills, and abilities cultivated by this type of programming are not irrelevant to their experiences within academy and professional football, and thus only applicable once transitioned out. In fact, the opposite is true. Whilst the utility of acquired knowledge, skills, and abilities certainly transfer into the wider vocational climate, they also help youth to successfully navigate the inherent challenges of the academy and professional football environments and contribute to optimal performance. More specifically, dysfunctional performance is attributable to self-focused attention (i.e. prescient thinking, ruminations) induced by stress and anxiety in which the mechanics of skill execution become the focus of attention.⁷¹ In line with the conscious-processing hypothesis, this focus on internal processes and attempts to control internalized, automated motor tasks interferes with autonomic skill execution and thus debilitates performance.⁷² Research has shown various factors inherent in the academy environment to engender stress and anxiety (e.g. athletic identity, critical moments, transitions), thus addressing these challenges will result in liberation from elaborate, analytical processing and consequently facilitate optimal performance.

A future ready paradigm designs youth programming in a manner that is responsive to the uncertainty and non-linear nature of modern career opportunities by constructing a holistic youth development programme that encourages awareness of how sport cultivates the acquisition of a wide-range of future-readiness skills and actively exploring future occupational opportunities that align to those skills. Indeed this annexe of youth development is particularly pertinent amongst elite youth athletes given the precarious nature of the athletic career trajectory, thus integration of these perspectives could enrich current elite youth development programming.

Self-determination theory (SDT) asks us to consider how we can construct an environment which satisfies youth’s needs for mastery experiences, meaningful connections, and control over their actions. Both self-efficacy theory, an individual’s belief in their ability to successfully execute behaviours to produce the desired outcome, and goal-setting, the ability of youth to actively identify and establish goals, optimize learning experiences to move towards those goals, and identify obstacles that may inhibit goal pursuit, are of critical importance to development and performance across contexts.⁷³ The cultivation of social emotional skills allows for recognition and regulation of emotions, appreciation of the perspective of others, establishing and maintaining positive interpersonal relationships, engaging in responsible decision-making and effectively managing interpersonal situations, and these proficiencies have all widely been recognized as salient antecedents of academic and career success.⁷⁴ Finally, the process of self and career exploration enables youth to perceive themselves as plural, multifaceted individuals with many possible future selves and may ultimately facilitate optimal performance through a reduction in the experience of performance pressure.

It would appear the risks and rewards awaiting those aspiring to a career in professional football have never been greater. With talent, diligence, commitment, and luck on their side, a career in professional football remains within the realm of possibility for academy players. However, the majority will be released before their dreams come to fruition, with this transition often accompanied by a host of negative psychological and emotional consequences exacerbated by a lack of preparedness to navigate these challenges. As the safety and wellbeing of aspiring footballers moves from the periphery of academies thinking to the forefront, more intention and rigour is needed to ensure that developmental programming is constructed to cultivate future-readiness. It is important to emphasize that the implications of our model are not limited to the context of academy football. Indeed youth engaged in other elite developmental programmes (i.e. RugbyUnion academies) have spoken to challenges experienced with their practice environments, educational endeavours, financial situations, and support around the transition away from rugby.⁷⁵

In this article, future-readiness has been conceptualized as a malleable quality that can be enhanced through programme intervention. More specifically, it is hypothesized that incorporating the recommendations in this article could inoculate youth footballers from the negative consequences of adversity by enhancing their proactivity, adaptability, and resilience, which ultimately will lead to enhanced well-being and mental health. Proactivity will allow youth to consider their ideal futures and the potential barriers to its fruition. Adaptability will allow individuals to manage their internal and external environments, and resilience will grant them the individual strengths and resources that function to mitigate adversity. If successful in integrating future-readiness developmental activities into current programming, professional academies will be equipping youth with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to simultaneously navigate the pressures and challenges of the academy system and the transition out of that system, whilst also fostering skills that will contribute to optimal performance. In short, future-readiness will allow youth to feel their best and perform their best during their time in academy football and beyond.

* While this is an actual recount of a story shared by Brunton (2019) who is head of education and welfare from Luton Town Football Club, however, we refer to the player as Matthew to maintain confidentiality. [Brunton, D. (2019). Personal Communication.]

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Calvin, No Hunger in Paradise; and Premier League, “Elite Player Performance Plan”.

2. Blakelock, Chen and Prescott, “Psychological Distress”; Brown and Potrac, “De-selection and Identity”; Gouttebar, Aoki, and Kerkhoffs, “Mental Disorders”; and Platts, “Education and Welfare”.

3. Benson, Scales, Hamilton, and Sesma, “Positive Youth Development”.

4. Lee, “Resilience as a Positive Youth Development Construct”.

5. Calvin, No Hunger in Paradise.

6. Ibid.

7. Platts, “Education and Welfare”.

8. Calvin, No Hunger in Paradise; and Conn, “Struggle Facing Boys Rejected”.

9. Conn, “Struggle Facing Boys Rejected”.

10. Calvin, No Hunger in Paradise.

11. Morris, Tod, and Oliver, “Investigation into Stakeholders”.

12. Ibid.

13. Blakelock, Chen and Prescott, “Psychological Distress”.

14. Ibid.

15. Platts, “Education and Welfare in Academies”.

16. Platts, “Education and Welfare in Academies”; Sothern & O”Gorman, “Mental Health of Academy Footballers”.

17. Gouttebarge, Frings-Dresen, and Sluiter, “Psychosocial Health”; and Gouttebarge, Haruhito, and Kerkhoffs, “Mental Disorders”.

18. Bower, “Footballers Seeking Mental Health Help”.

19. Grez, “Inside the Mind”; Hytner, “I Love Championship Manager”; Kelner, “Danny Rose Depression”; McRae, “I Felt Dead Inside”; Perraudin, “Bereaved Stranger Helped Save His Life”; Taylor, “A Very Dark Place”; and The Guardian, “Everton Winger Receives Treatment”.

20. Wood, Harrison, and Kucharska, “Footballers” Mental Health”.

21. Nesti et al., “Critical Moments”.

22. Conn, “Support Not There”.

23. Young, Pearce, and Payne, “Leaving the Professional Tennis Circuit”.

24. Nesti,et al., “Critical Moments in Elite Premiership Football”; and Taylor and Taylor, “Psychological Approaches”.

25. Ibid.

26. Brown and Potrac, “De-selection and Identity”; Brownrigg et al., “Footballers Career-Transition”; Nesti et al., “Critical Moments”; and Taylor and Taylor, “Psychological Approaches”.

27. Ibid.

28. Adler and Adler, “The Gloried Self”; and Brewer, Vanraalte, and Linder, “Athletic Identity”.

29. Warriner and Lavellee, “Retirement Experiences; Webb et al., “Athlete Identity”; Wippert and Wippert, “Stress Symptoms”; and Wippert and Wippert, “Involuntary Athletic Career Termination”.

30. Warriner and Lavellee, “Retirement Experiences”.

31. Platts, “Education and Welfare in Academies”.

32. “UCAS Tariff Points”.

33. Fitzmaurice, “The 15 Easiest”.

34. Platts, “Education and Welfare in Academies”.

35. Ibid.

36. James, “England”s Young Footballers”.

37. Platts, “Education and Welfare in Academies”.

38. Sronach and Adnair, “Lords of the Square Ring”.

39. Coutinho, Mesquita, and Fonesca, “Talent Development”; and Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Römer, “Deliberate Practice”.

40. Lloyd et al., “Long-Term Athletic Development”.

41. Knight, Harwood, and Gould, Sport Psychology for Young Athletes.

42. Gardner and Moore, “(MAC) Approach”; Schwanhausser, “Application of (MAC) Protocol”; and Sheard and Golby, “Effect of a Psychological Skills Training Program”.

43. Pierce, “Better People”; and Swann et al., “Supporting Mental Health”.

44. “Premier League Education”.

45. “The Apprentice Journey”.

46. Butt and Molnar, “Involuntary Career Termination”; Kerr and Dacyshyn, “Retirement Experiences”; Lally, “Identity and Athletic Retirement”; and Mitchell et al., “Exploring Athletic Identity”.

47. Markus and Nurius, “Possible Selves”.

48. Ouellette et al., “Using Images”; and Murru and Ginis, “Imagining the Possibilities”.

49. Lally, “Identity and Athletic Retirement”.

50. Mitchell et al., “Exploring Athletic Identity”.

51. Ryan and Deci, “Self-Determination Theory”.

52. Deci and Ryan, “Intrinsic Motivation”.

53. Black and Deci, “Instructors” Autonomy Support”; Gagne and Bargmann, “Autonomy Support and Need Satisfaction”; Hadre and Reeve, “A Motivational Model; Krane, Snow, and Greenleaf, “Reaching for Gold” and Ryan and Connell, “Perceived Locus”.

54. Close and Solberg, “Predicting Achievement”.

55. Geldhof et al., “Relational Developmental Systems”.

56. Bowers et al., “The Five Cs”.

57. Bandura, “Social Cognitive Theory”.

58. Multon, Brown, and Lent, “Relation of Self-Efficacy Beliefs”; Solberg et al., “Classifying At-Risk High School Youth”; and Torres and Solberg, “Role of Self-Efficacy”.

59. Close and Solberg, “Predicting Achievement”; Feltz, Chow, and Hepler, “Self-Efficacy and Diving Performance”; Gao, Kosma, and Harrison, “Ability Beliefs”; Gushue et al., “Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy”; Moritz et al., “The Relation of Self-Efficacy”; Nota et al., “Career Search Self-Efficacy”; and Solberg et al., “Quality Learning Experiences”.

60. Chen and Solberg, “Pathways”; and Solberg et al., “Quality Learning Experiences”.

61. Locke et al., “Goal Setting and Task Performance”.

62. Domitrovich et al., “Social-Emotional Competence”; and Solberg et al., “Promoting Quality Individualized Learning Plans”.

63. Durlak et al., “Enhancing Students” Social and Emotional Learning”; and Jones, Greenberg, and Crowley, “Early Social-Emotional Functioning”.

64. Morris, Tod, and Oliver, “An Investigation into Stakeholders”.

65. Solberg et al., “Promoting Quality Individualized Learning Plans”.

66. Lally, “Identity and Athletic Retirement”; Warriner and Lavellee, “Retirement Experiences”; and Young, Pearce, and Payne, “Leaving the Professional Tennis Circuit”.

67. Alfermann, Stambulova, and Zeimaityte, “Reactions to Sport Career Termination”.

68. Burning Glass Technologies, “The Human Factor”; and Lim-Lange and Lim-Lange, “Deep Human”.

69. Solberg, “Making School Relevant”; and Solberg, Park and Marsay, “Designing Quality Programs”.

70. Callanan, Perri, and Tomkowicz, “Career Management”.

71. Gardner and Moore, “(MAC) Approach”.

72. Masters, “Knowledge, Knerves and Know-How”.

73. Bandura, “Social Cognitive Theory”; Chen and Solberg, “Pathways from Caring and Engaging Adults”; Solberg, et al., “Quality Learning Experiences”.

74. Domitrovich et al., “Social-Emotional Competence”; Solberg et al., “Promoting Quality Individualized Learning Plans”.