Nurturing over 200 boys and young men, the Crystal Palace Academy has a wide-ranging remit in its support of prospects within its system. In a pool of almost 50 full-time staff at the Academy, there are eight dedicated members who work across player care, psychology, safeguarding, education and wider life skills.
Palace’s success in producing professional footballers is high, with Wilfried Zaha the most-played Academy player to rise all the way through the club’s ranks in recent decades (432 appearances), and a graduate has represented the first-team once every 168 days since 2004.
Looking just below professional level, the Academy handed out 17 professional contracts in the last 12 months to its most promising players, with several on the verge of the first-team squad.
Across the Premier League, Category 1 academies such as Palace’s have a commendable record in producing homegrown talent. In the last decade, approximately 30% of players at Category 1 academies have gained a professional contract and around 10% have made 20 or more professional league appearances.
Of course not every Academy player will make the first-team or become a professional footballer, but the club ensures each youngster to represent Crystal Palace’s Academy is prepared for life outside the sport.
To this end, Palace Chairman Steve Parish says, if the Academy produces “better young people than the people who arrive, more rounded and more capable of dealing with their life, then we’ve done a good job.”
Prospects enter the Academy intent on becoming professional footballers, but all those aged over 15 will attain professional qualifications such as A-levels, BTECs, or similar, vastly enhancing their career prospects for life away from the pitch.
And it’s not just the coaches, scouts and analysts of the future who are holistically prepared by an Academy education; even those players who do enter the playing pyramid do so with more than just ball skills.
“We’re wholly responsibly for their achievement and attainment here,” says Head of Education Rowan Griffiths. “Every single member of the 15 second-year scholar graduates is finishing their Under-18 season with at least two A-level equivalent qualifications each.
“They are very high-achieving students. Of particular note are last season’s Under-18 captain, Joe Sheridan, and his teammate Joe Ling, who are both completing their scholarship with four A-A* A-level equivalents including A-levels in Maths and Politics.
“Wales International, Jadan Raymond, has also recently completed his A-level Graphic Design course where he achieved an A*.
“The stats from last summer [2021] about A-level and BTEC grades are significantly above average for boys in all areas… you’re getting smaller classes and smaller teaching groups in phenomenal facilities. It also helps that the students are highly motivated, driven and focused, and of course every member of staff here works around the clock to ensure the players thrive in their education.
“There is a consistent theme of higher achievement across all Premier League clubs in comparison with their peers in full-time education, something which the Premier League are very proud to celebrate.”
Of players at Premier League Academies who took their A-levels in summer 2021, an outstanding 67% of their results were A or A*. This compares with the national average of about 45 per cent for those grades.
At Palace, a hybrid education programme also brings players’ learning in-house, ensuring their time balancing school and football is managed effectively.
“Under-13s is when we start our hybrid programme,” Griffiths continues. “They come out [of school] two afternoons each week, and that’s an agreement with schools, parents and ourselves. We transport them to the Academy where they do additional training, but we also do teaching in the classroom environment.
“The schools can ask us to cover certain subjects or certain topics, and that’s about not making their education suffer due to being part of the Academy system.”
“[Rowan has] contact with the school of every player in the Academy,” Head of Academy Operations Karl Eccleston explains. “We ask them to keep us updated with the player so we can look after them when they’re here.
“The whole time they’re here they’ll have player care provision. At the early ages that will be through their parents or face to face at the Academy. They’ll always have access to care and performance psychology, headed by Sion Thomas, our Lead Psychologist. Sion looks after Under-18s and Under-23s and has two staff for the other age groups.”
Prepared for a career outside of football as they are, if players do leave the Academy aged 18+, they are offered an enhanced after-care programme to support them on their onward journey whether that’s finding a new club or a work placement.
“Whatever their path is,” Parish says, “we want to offer our support to them to help them achieve success.”
This can be seen even at the toughest times. As will be evident in the Channel 4 documentary Football Dreams: The Academy, when a young Palace prospect learns they haven’t yet received an extended contract, Player Care Officer Kiran Dingri is on hand to support them.
Dingri is one of two player care staff focusing on the Academy players to support the young people throughout their time with the club and beyond.
“They’ve got another person they can recognise that isn’t the person picking the team or making decisions on their futures and selection,” Dingri says of his role. “I work with each age group and their parents, delivering different content on navigating through the Academy journey.”
Examples of this non-playing path into employment can be found across the club already, with Academy staff members such as Ghass Sow, Michael Kamara and Dougie Wright having both competed with Palace as youth players.
“We were offered work within the Academy,” Wright explains. “It is something Gary Issott, our Academy Director, is keen to do, to help out our transition afterwards. There are lots of former players dotted about the club with roles, so there’s a great pathway there.”
“People here want the best for them,” says Parish, “the coaches, the staff, the tutors, the mentors, the safeguarding people are all willing to embrace them, help them, want them to succeed.”
Football Dreams: The Academy, a documentary about the Palace Academy, airs on Thursdays in the UK only. Find out more here.
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