Carry-on thread from end of Derby match thread as topic now locked.
In reply to Din-
Thank you for your post it was really interesting to read. Which Uni are you going to (do you know yet?)
Do you think youth football was a good thing in your life? We talked about the 2% that are still in football at the age of 25. Do you think football is a distraction?
You're obviously very smart as well (which probably isnt true for a number of lads who end up good enough to play at youth level, so it probably doesnt detract from a lot of lads education) and thinking about Tom Adeyemi and the choice he had to make and the example cited earlier in the thread - do you think football could be a distraction for young kids at a really important time qualification-wise?
I got straight A's and ended up at University for 7 years, but I had to work at it, and I know that if Id had my head turned by the prospect of Youth Football, I probably wouldnt have got the academic grades I did. That would definitely have affected my life in a Sliding Doors kind of way.
Considering how few kids actually make a living out of football, if it is a distraction at a vital time, that adversely affects their grades, could football be a negative influence on a number of people?
Aha good I'm glad someone found it interesting
I'll be going to either Lincoln or Anglia Ruskin Uni next year. Neither are actually my real preferences but my Sixth Form cocked up last year, and that *bleep*-up means that I only now do 2 subjects rather than 3 which is standard. By doing 2 it's now pretty much impossible for me to get enough points to get into the top Uni's. That said though I've visited both Lincoln and Anglia Ruskin, and I was impressed by both, so I'm certainly not gonna complain about that.
In regards to my life, I'd certainly say youth football was definitely a good thing. I mean yes, I'd love to have a career in it. But the main reason that I play football is because I love playing it. It just so happens that I was deemed good enough to have a shot at working my way through the ranks from the Millwall academy. But once I left Millwall I still continued playing for a Sunday league team, and I loved it just as much as when I played in an academy. So the fact that I had the opportunity to play at the highest level possibly for a 14 year old was a great experience for me. And plus I do have to admit that I do feel a little bit of pride when I see players such as Will Hughes and Demarai Gray playing at such a high level, knowing that I was only playing against them about 4 years ago. Will Hughes as an example as well, played against Norwich on Saturday, playing against players that I idolise myself, it does make me feel a bit proud thinking about it. All that said though, I did stop playing for Millwall when I was 14. There was a lot less pressure on us than there was on say the 17/18 year old's currently in various academies. Perhaps if I'd continued until I was 16/17/18, when obviously school work and exams start becoming that little bit more important, then I could certainly see it becoming a distraction. When you get to under 18 level, you start getting paid for playing. Obviously by paying young footballers to simply play in youth teams, it is now officially a proper job for these lads. I think that's when it starts to become dangerous. I've never been in that situation, but if I was, I think I would naturally sort of expect that the next step would be to play in the first team. It's like any job really, for example if you do an apprenticeship at any company, and you're getting paid for doing that apprenticeship, then the next natural thing would be that that company offer you a full-time contract. However football doesn't work like that. In football they can simply tell you as a youth player that you're not ever gonna be good enough for the first team here, and they can release you without any obligations. As I said, I think that's where it can become damaging, because at the age of 17/18, you decide the next step in your life. If you're a bright kid who gets good grades and has the prospect of going to Uni, and yet you put all your eggs in one basket with football then it could really come back to bite you. Obviously some people though (such as the guy CB was talking about in the other thread) choose not to pursue football, no matter how good they are, which in my eyes would certainly be the sensible decision, but I suppose if everybody did that then nobody would ever become a footballer.
I mean right now one of my best mates is doing this. He's a really clever guy, much cleverer than me. Gets great grades and could have the pick of any Uni he wanted really. But instead next year he's going to America to do a football scholarship, paying much more than he would to go to uni in England, despite the fact that he's never even played in an academy or anything like that. He's a good footballer for his age, but there are lads I have played with who are vastly more talented than he is and yet they have and never will make it, so in my mind certainly I'm not sure what he's doing it for. He's got his heart set on it though, simply because he loves football.
I've never really thought about it before in much depth, but now that I have I think football can certainly have a real detrimental on young people. If you give up everything in order to try and become a footballer and it all goes wrong (as it does with 98% of youth footballers) then it's gonna have a massive impact on your life in a negative way, and you could end up making up for it for years after. For example, if you're a smart kid, but you stop revising for exams because you think it's more beneficial that you go and play football instead to make you a better footballer which gives you more chance of making it, then you could really horribly mess up your life.
Thanks for calling me smart as well, been called a lot of things down the years, but can't say I've been called that too many times
