Chasing the Dream: Pep Guardiola, Sir Alex Ferguson and plenty of extra focus on the inconceivable journey to skilled soccer

0.06 per cent.

It is a quantity so small, it is arduous to understand.

However that’s the probability of a younger boy changing into knowledgeable footballer on this nation.

Solely six in each 10,000 make the grade.

These odds are just like the probability of being dealt 4 aces in poker. Or discovering a pearl in an oyster shell. Or changing into an astronaut and travelling into house.

In an unique interview for Sky Sports activities Information’ Chasing the Dream documentary, Trent Alexander-Arnold stated: “You have more chance of winning the lottery than making it as a professional footballer.”

1.65m boys play our nationwide sport. Lower than one per cent of them make it into the academy of knowledgeable membership.

Of these, fewer than one-in-ten (9 per cent) go on to make a single look on the skilled degree. Within the Premier League, the numbers are smaller nonetheless: simply 1.5 per cent of academy graduates will play one match within the prime division.

Armed with these information, we launched into what grew to become the biggest, most complete investigation ever carried out by Sky Sports activities Information.

The unique thought got here from Tony Pulis, who approached us together with his personal experiences, and loads of questions.

After greater than 400 video games as a participant and greater than 1,000 matches beneath this belt as a supervisor, he’d at all times had considerations concerning the welfare of younger academy footballers and the general ‘failure’ price.

Now, with two grandsons within the system, he wished to know what soccer as an trade was doing to advertise and assist each those who make it, and people that don’t.

What began off as a plan for a 15-minute mini-documentary, shortly snowballed. The extra we spoke to individuals concerned with academy soccer in England, the extra tales we found and the extra points had been uncovered. Every time we answered one query, it appeared to result in one other that wanted addressing.

Over a nine-month interval, we carried out unique interviews with a number of the greatest names within the sport. Legendary managers akin to Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti and Harry Redknapp.

Chasing the Dream: The Elite Managers

Sunday twenty fourth November 7:30pm

Elite-level gamers, together with Alexander-Arnold, Kyle Walker, Levi Colwill, Ollie Watkins, Jordan Pickford, Tyrone Mings and plenty of, many extra.

We additionally heard some heart-wrenching tales from younger boys and their households who did not fairly make the grade.

The collection consists of the first-ever TV interviews with the mom of Matthew Langton who took his personal life after being launched by Mansfield; with Lewis Reed, who got here very near suicide as he tried to deal with rejection at Ipswich and Moses Swaibu who, after leaving Crystal Palace’s academy, fell into organised crime and was given a 16-month jail sentence for match fixing.

The documentary additionally options behind the scenes footage at a number of membership academies, large and small. From Manchester United to Exeter Metropolis, Nottingham Forest to Blackburn Rovers, Crystal Palace to Chesterfield.

There are unique interviews with the power-brokers of English soccer, too.

We spoke to the person who has simply appointed Thomas Tuchel as the brand new England supervisor, the FA’s Technical Director John McDermott, who gave us his first TV interview since taking on the position in January 2021, in addition to the director of soccer on the Premier League, Neil Saunders.

The EFL additionally options closely with the chief government, director of soccer and chief working officers all participating.

You can even be taught concerning the story of Curtis Anderson, who gained the U17s World Cup with England alongside Phil Foden, who’s now a monetary adviser specialising in steering for present soccer students.

What we ended up with was three-and-a-half hours of fascinating content material, and a seven-part documentary collection, each side of youth soccer on this nation. The nice, the unhealthy, and the seemingly inconceivable.

As a result of that was our place to begin. Is the ambition to grow to be knowledgeable footballer an nearly inconceivable dream? It’s broadly recognized that solely a tiny minority of younger boys ever make a profession out of the sport. And but that does not cease so many from attempting.

Hundreds of thousands of younger boys are “Chasing the Dream.”

Watch on Sky Sports activities Premier League and Sky Sports activities Soccer from November 24. Displaying on Sky Documentaries from December 2 to December 5.

All episodes out there on demand from November twenty fourth.