16 years old. Probably one of the most important years in your adolescent life. Maturity begins to grow, yet so does youthful stupidity. Many important decisions are made at this age: your GCSEs and your post-16 options after school.
Academy players are offered scholarships, committing full time to academy life and sacrificing a sixth form or college education. Even in the grassroots scene, many kids see the futility in waking up early on weekends to play football, thinking they will never go pro. It is also the age where one can properly play semi-professional men’s football, and where many kids transition into the men’s game.
In the academy system, this is where your first major contract appears: the scholarship. After GCSEs, if academy players sign a scholarship, they do not attend their school’s sixth form or go to college. Instead, they experience the life of a professional footballer, training full time at a club where football and education are balanced.
This is a massive step. If you attend a professional football scholarship programme and, after two years, do not get offered a professional contract, or realise the footballer lifestyle is not for you, breaking back into the education system after neglecting a full school-based education can be difficult.
Looking at young players like Max Dowman and Rio Ngumoha making debuts at 15 or 16, while they struggle to even make it into an academy, many kids simply give up. A sport they have played since they were young suddenly brings no joy. Those early weekend mornings feel pointless.
But this is far from the case.
The possibility of becoming a professional is still there. Even if you do not get a scholarship, the professional contract two years later is the real goal. Do not beat yourself up over players your age already in the Premier League. Everyone’s journey is different.
Most people panic about contracts at sixteen, when legends like Didier Drogba did not even join a team until he was fifteen. These cases are exceptions, but they prove the door is not locked. As important as sixteen is, it does not make or break a football career. It would be better to be in an academy and sign a scholarship, but as stories like Drogba’s and Vardy’s show, it is not the end if you do not.
Not being in an academy at sixteen also has positives. The main one is the ability to play men’s football. Most academy players are bound by contracts and can only play for their club, meaning they cannot join men’s teams and gain experience in open-age football. Unless you are a standout talent, you are likely to be stuck playing with people your own age, or slightly older, due to the extremely high standard.
By contrast, grassroots players can join men’s teams, building physicality and ruthlessness that many academy players do not develop. This is why academy players can often feel overwhelmed when they first enter the men’s game. You see this when prospects at big clubs like Manchester City or Manchester United move to lower-league teams to gain game time and real experience, something academies cannot always provide.
Recently, I have been training with Congleton Town FC reserves, the men’s second team, as I will soon turn sixteen and become eligible to play. This has allowed me to experience the rougher side of football and see the game as it truly is, rather than being protected in the bubble many academy players grow up in.
If you've made it this far, thank you for reading! Football is so much more than what happens on the pitch, and it's time we talk more about the mental battles that define players' careers. If this article resonated with you, share it with your teammates, coaches, and fellow football fans. Let's keep the conversation going and help more young players navigate the game's toughest challenges. Stay tuned for more on Pitch Side Journal—and see you back here soon!
