How Premier League Futures programme is helping former academy prospects

“Within six months of being the captain at West Ham and playing in the Youth Cup, I was delivery driving at Domino’s,” says Iyiola Adebayo.

Adebayo had joined at eight the academy that produced Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole and Declan Rice and the defensive midfielder from Tilbury was tipped to follow in their footsteps when awarded a scholarship before anyone else in his age group. However, a dislocated shoulder set him back in the first year and despite making appearances for the under-21s and under 23s, he was released at 16.

“They thought maybe being in a new environment and being in a new club might allow me to push on and thrive because I had been there for so long,” he says. “It was a tough time, especially in terms of my identity. Because I’ve always been Iyiola that plays for West Ham.”

Desperate to find a club, but not fully recovered from injuries that plagued his final two years at West Ham, Adebayo went to several trials “probably at 50-60% of what I was capable of” and found it difficult to cope with the feeling of rejection.

“To have to go to parts of the country I’ve never been to before by myself, knowing I couldn’t fully show myself, it was definitely challenging mentally for me,” he says. “I remember having some conversations with my mum and my friends at the time about how I was struggling a bit mentally, and sometimes I didn’t want to be there, I wanted to go home. It was very difficult.”

Adebayo started working part-time delivering pizzas to make ends meet when the former head of education at West Ham suggested attending the Premier League Futures programme. Adebayo was reluctant and had to be persuaded. “I was still dealing with my release. Sometimes when you’re in that phase you don’t want to do anything that reminds you of that situation,” he says.

The Futures programme started in 2017 as part of the requirement for academies to provide a minimum three-year aftercare commitment for players released during the professional development phase (under-17 to under-21) and is an introduction into potential career pathways beyond the pitch. That includes two initiatives to support under-16 players without a contract and a 12-month programme for current, as well as former academy players, between the ages of 18 and 24.

For Adebayo, it has been life-changing. He is in the final year of a sponsored football business and marketing degree at the University Campus of Football Business and also runs workshops to players in academies on mental health and lifestyle choices on behalf of Sporting Chance.

He spotted the charity set up by the former Arsenal captain Tony Adams had a stand at the Premier League youth development conference he attended as part of the Futures programme.

“I went to speak to them when I was released because I felt quite a bit of anxiety around playing football and I did some counselling sessions with them. I remembered their logo and my experience with them,” he says.

“[The workshops] are about dealing with the pressures of being an academy player, whether that be peer pressure or the pressure to perform. Sometimes it’s about the messenger as well as the message. I’m not that far removed from the experiences they’re going through.”

The 23-year-old admits the Futures programme has opened his eyes to potential career paths. “I thought you’re either a coach, you’re a player, maybe you’re a kit man or a physio. But learning there’s hundreds of roles where you can make loads of money and have fulfilling careers, I think I was ready to hear it and ready to take the opportunity.”

According to Neil Saunders, the Premier League’s director of football, who studied at the University of Bath after being released by Watford as a teenager, there has been increasingly more emphasis on encouraging those not offered professional deals to move into higher education or to look for other jobs in the industry.

“A relatively small number make it through to the first team, but we want every single young person that comes through the academy to be able to look back on their time positively,” he says. “Many of the boys will have spent a significant number of years in academies and will become experts in performance analysis or in strength conditioning and coaching.

“While there are a finite number of jobs as a professional player, we want to make sure we’re equipping those young people with the opportunity to progress into roles beyond the pitch.”

Adebayo is planning his next step. “I’ve learned so much, because I’ve been made aware of so much and improved my skill set so much,” he says. “First, I probably want to work in player care and maybe after that I might want to go and work in the business or commercial side of sport. It’s made me very optimistic that I can still be involved in sport and football, but in many different ways.”