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How to join a football soccer club academy
Answered (best 4 ways)
Have you been thinking what to do to join a soccer academy?
We have the answer.
There is a lot of information out there explaining what to do to join a football academy, much of this information are opinions or personal experiences from people but..
- How should you really go about this process?
- What different ways are there to be part of an academy and showcase your talents?
- What can you do to finally get a team, where you can develop and go into the next level of professional football?
We have created a guide to answer these questions once and for all, after reading the full guide you will have a very clear idea of what you have to do to get in a football club.
BEST 4 WAYS TO JOIN A FOOTBALL CLUB IN EUROPE
Obviously, there are many ways to get in a football academy and a professional club, but what are the most reliable go-to ways to do this?
We have come up with the 4 ultimate ways to join a football club academy. If you follow these steps you will be on your way to getting a professional football and playing in a football academy in Spain.
- Getting scouted in 2 ways.
- Getting the right agent for you.
- Contacting clubs by yourself.
- Join a specialised academy that trains you and finds trials for you.
How can you be seen by a football academy or club?
1. Getting scouted while you play football.
This is a way to join a football academy, however is the least likely one. Simply because you need a lot of luck.
This is sometimes described as climbing the ladder to the top.
You basically join any soccer team regardless of the level. When you play, you will always have the chance of showing your skills and abilities.
“This is the beauty of football, everyone has the chance to play, everyone has the chance to showcase themselves and succeed.”
If you are different, with abilities that overshadow the other players, and perform correctly in the soccer field, there will always be a chance of someone seeing you and wanting to sign you.
Keep in mind that these abilities have to be trained, for example, if you want to be fast and impress scouts, you need to do speed training drills and exercises! Things don’t come just because of ‘talent’.
After being scouted you will normally be invited to attend to football academy trials in Spain, more info about this in the link.
As Arsene Wenger said one time, you never know who is watching!
These can be football scouts actively looking for players or simply someone who is watching your game by coincidence and is impressed by your abilities. Check our new guide on how to get scouted in football.
Normally, the person interested will try to contact you, your parents or most commonly your football coach. From there on, there is normally a football trial or even signing straight away!
Another way this can happen is by your football coach.
The coach in your team might know people or might have had a past in football and valuable contacts, so, if you impress and clearly show you are too good for the current level, many times your coach will identify this and help you on.
Surprisingly this happens very often, as coaches in smaller clubs want you to succeed and have a career in football.
Sometimes, coaches might send you for football clinics or soccer camps in Europe to show your talents.
How do I get an agent?
2. Getting a football agent.
Oh! The controversial world of football agents.
Similarly to football scouts, the job of agents is to actively search for football talent and find them a soccer team.
However, differently to soccer scouts, agents also take care of other parts like contracts and salaries. Normally, this is where they will take their fee.
But going back to the point of joining a soccer club, agents are people with contacts, a lot of contacts.
So, when you manage to impress an agent, they can be a helpful person because they can arrange trials or football scouts to come and watch you play.
They normally are very eager to do this because this is the nature of their business. If you succeed and become a soccer player, they succeed, and get a profit, ah. Everyone wins.
The truth is that most of the agents are around a higher level, and there aren’t many who might be looking around low level clubs. This makes it harder for you to join a club with their help.
Don’t worry! In this website you can see a huge list of football agents in Europe. However, before you start sending emails, check out our last point on how to join a football academy in Europe.. Is the best one yet!
Normally, an agent will help you once you are already part of a soccer club. However, there are a lot of agents or even people who have been part of football clubs and academies in the past, that might not be actively looking for talents, but if they see someone with special abilities they might be interested in helping.
PRO TIP: Always try to record your football games, or just yourself playing football. This way, you can contact football agents by email and send them your video. You might be surprised by the number of agents that contact back. Specially if you are already in a good level club or if you look very good in your video.
How do I apply for a football academy for free?
3. Contact the club straight away o join for free.
There are three simple ways to do this:
- Get a hold of an email from the club
- Get the details of anyone who works in the club.
- Have an agent or a person who knows people in the club.
As explained in our PRO TIP, if you sent a straight forward, well written email with your details, information, and most importantly, a video, there is a possibility you get a response.
Always have a good video of you playing in games and showing goals and making good actions! This will impress the people in the club!
But keep in mind that, of all the ways to join a football academy, this is the least likely one. But is a great chance to join a football academy for free without any agent fees.
What is the best and fastest way to join a football club academy in Europe?
4. Joining a specialised academy like Alicante Football Academy.
A specialised academy like ours will improve you as a player and do the hard work of finding a team for you.
Opposite to the last point, this is the most likely way you can succeed in joining an actual real Football Club Academy in Spain.
Check our Inside Alicante Football Academy video to see how football academies work.
One day in Alicante Football Academy in Spain
You can see the success stories from some of the players in our academy Alicante Football Academy who have managed to join a soccer club in Spain in just a month!
We have players appearing in their countries newspaper!
- How can I attend a soccer academy in Spain if I’m not from Europe?
If you want to join a Pro Academy in Spain like Alicante Academy you simply have to fill up our form with your information. If you are from the European Union you can join straight away. If you are from outside the European Union you will have to apply for a Visa Permit, this is quite a straightforward procedure and can be completed fast. Learn about the process to play in Spain if you are from outside the EU here.
We, as an Academy, take care of this procedure so you don’t have to worry about it.
- What is like attending a full time private football academy?
In our Alicante Football Academy, players breathe, eat and sleep football. A total unique environment of football that will put you in the best position to improve as a player, and take the next step to a Pro Soccer Club in Spain.
Training football twice a day 5 times a week, once with the academy and once with a team in Spain as a trial. So you are always taken out of the comfort zone.
In our Soccer Academy you will be attending football trials weekly, this is the reason why you join an academy like this.
We train you to make you better and showcase you to teams of your level who might want to sign you after a trial.
We are the scout who never saw you, the coach who didn’t help you, the agent who never found out about your abilities!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION ABOUT SOCCER ACADEMIES
How old do you have to be to play professional soccer in Europe?
You build yourself up in the academy with daily training and high level games. Around the age of 16 to 18 you will be eligible to get a Pro Contract and be part of the professional football club in Europe.
What age do football academies start?
Normally, soccer academies in Europe start with teams as young as 9 years old.
What is the maximum age to join a football academy?
It depends on the situation.
Normally one of the best ages to join an academy is around 13. As Pro Contracts can be given from the age of 16 and 18, is better to join before this age.
However, every situation is different. You can always become a professional player regardless of what people tell you. But logically, the older you are the harder it is.
Check out the famous Jamie Vardy story who didn’t succeed at any academy in Europe and become a legend of Leicester City winning the Premier League!
Anything possible!
What are the odds of becoming a pro soccer player?
Straight forward answer. The chance of becoming a professional soccer player in Europe and Spain are 1 in 5,768.
Which club has the best academy in europe/spain?
Some of the academies with most prestige are:
Villareal FC
West Ham Academy
Barcelona FC
Ajax
Anderlecht
Borussia Dortmund
Here is an updated list of other high level academies:
FOOTBALL ACADEMY GUIDES
Have you ever felt lost trying to understand how to get into a football team?
Do you want to join a football academy?
In this guide we explain the most common ways to get into a team in Spain fast and how we help you in the process in Alicante Football Academy.
Have you ever been in a football trial?
Do you want to attend one and get signed for a football academy?
In this guide we explain all there is to know about about this and how we help you in the process in Alicante Football Academy.
Do you know what you have to do to get scouted?
How can you make scouts come to watch you play?
In this guide we explain how you can get scouted and how we help you in the process in Alicante Football Academy.
Have you ever felt you need to train better to become a good footballer?
Do you want to bring your training sessions to another level?
In this guide we explain the best exercises, used by the best academies in the world, that we do in our morning trainings.
Have you ever wanted to get even faster?
Do you want to be the difference in every game and go past all your opponents?
In this guide we explain how we train speed in the academy and how you can score more football goals every game!
Have you ever wanted to become a better defender?
Do you want to be a strong, imposing defender that can lead a game?
In this guide we explain how we train defending in the academy and the best defending soccer drills to do alone and with your team!
Have you ever felt you need learn hot to train better by yourself?
Do you want to bring your individual training sessions to another level?
In this guide we explain the best individual exercises to do by yourself, used by the best academies in the world, that we encourage our players to do in their trainings.
Have you ever felt lost trying to understand how to become a footballer?
Do you want to become a footballer fast?
In this guide we explain the most common ways to get into a team in fast and how we help you become a pro footballer.
Have you ever felt lost trying to understand how to train a possession?
The possession exercise is undoubtedly one of the most efficient football exercises to become good in the modern game. Why?