Grassroots Football Magazine

Written by Alex Byers | 11 November 2010
Posted in Academy News

Five Star Asante

Birmingham City’s academy star Akwasi Asante has shot to prominence following a stunning five goal haul in the 6-0 thrashing of Tottenham Hotspur under 18’s.

Amsterdam born Asante moved to the UK with his family at the age of thirteen, having spent time playing for Haarlem’s academy, and is eligible to play for Ghana. Recently turned eighteen, the athletic forward has received rave reviews from management at the second city club and was on first team boss Alex McLeish’s radar long before his scoring exploits against the Londoners.

Alex McLeish told the Birmingham Mail: “He’s a young centre-forward, strong, quick and we believe he has got a chance.”

“He has caught the eye, no doubt about it. We have been impressed by Akwasi this season and he has trained with us, actually, before he scored the goals against Spurs.”

The striker netted his 13^th goal of the season in the reserves 5-1 victory at Coleshill in the Birmingham Senior Cup and will be hoping to gain some first team experience having been an unused substitute when Birmingham defeated Brentford on penalties in the 4^th round of the Carling Cup.

Lower league clubs will no doubt be casting an eye over Asante in the coming months, with a loan move to a lower league club, likely to be on the cards for the Dutch starlet.

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Written by Alex Byers | 11 November 2010
Posted in Academy News

luton town 1988 league cup winners It’s been a difficult few years for Luton Town, administration, points deductions and relegations have hit the famous old club hard.

Yet Hatters fans can take heart from the legacy the club has left upon the upper echelons of English football through its excellent youth setup. Luton currently have as many as eight graduates from their youth system who are contracted to clubs in the Premier League.

Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere, Aston Villa’s Curtis Davies, West Ham’s Matthew Upson, Bolton’s Matthew Taylor, Wigan’s Emmerson Boyce, Wolves’ Kevin Foley, Fulham’s Andrew Johnson, along with West Brom’s Jerome Thomas and Leon Barnett, all coming though the youth ranks at the Bedfordshire club at some stage before moving on to pastures new.

Luton Under 15’s put themselves into the history books in January by becoming the first English team to win the Hassia Bingen International Tournament, beating FSV Mainz 05 in the final in Germany.

England's U17 Rising Stars

While Fabio Capello and the senior squad were preparing for this month’s World Cup and looking to follow in the footsteps of the famous 1966 team, England U17s were busy making history themselves.

John Peacock’s youngsters became the first England men’s team to lift a trophy in 17 years on May 30 when they beat Spain 2-1 in Lichtenstein to win the European Championship thanks to goals from Ipswich Town’s Connor Wickham.

Written by Grassroots Soccer Magazine | 15 September 2010
Posted in Academy News

Phil-Ifil

England’s abject failure at the World Cup, the nearly men of Republic of Ireland, in addition to inconsistent performances and a lack of quality resulting in disappointment for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales in their qualification groups. These performances raise the often asked questions of; are we good enough? Are our expectations too high? And are their too many foreign players in the Premier League, affecting the progression of our young British players?

"Philip Ifil, a casualty of high number of foreign players in the Premier League"

It’s the last question which has been the major talking point this summer, with the introduction of the Premier League’s ‘Home grown players’ rule. In essence, each Premier League manager must name at least eight home grown players in their 25 man squad*, with any number of under 21s, regardless of their nationality, in addition to the squad. This has been introduced to limit the number of foreign players in the division, due to the figure currently being an incredible 60%.