How to Choose the Best Football Academies Internationally

So you’re ready to begin your international sports adventure, and eager take your game to a completely new level. But which football academy is right for you? Where can you find the best mix of training and exposure?

We’ll cover the fundamentals for choosing an international football academy in this article, and help point you in the right direction.

Football Academy Coaching
You can’t become the best unless you train with the best. That’s why international-level coaching staff is so important to maximize your potential.

Some international football academies will have partnerships with premier league coaching staff in their respective countries. This means you’ll be training with professional coaches on a daily basis.

Research the camps you want to attend and find out who will be coaching you and what their credentials are. How long have they been coaching? Have they coached any professional teams? What do they focus on in their training?

These are the kind of questions to ask when deciding on the perfect football academy for you.

Football Academy Scouting
Visibility is as important as top-level training. If the right people never lay eyes on you, it doesn’t matter how great your skills are. Look for a football academy with proven relationships with professional teams and scouts.

This network is invaluable for finding the right opportunities, so make sure that the football academies you consider have access to it. Find out if they partner with FIFA agents to secure professional trials for their players. Check up on the alumni of the program and see where they are now, and if they play for any professional teams. If others have found professional soccer success with the program, chances are you will, too.

Football Academy Living Conditions
Since you won’t be spending 24 hours on the pitch, you need to think about where you’ll be staying. This is where the friendships solidify, as you live and work with other elite players. Parents will definitely want to know you’re safe before they sign off on an overseas adventure. Many football academies facilitate regular communications with home and keep parents updated on player progress through the semester.

Some football academies offer an option to stay in the home of a local host family. This is a great chance to get a day-in-the-life view of how another culture lives. Players form life-long friendships in these football academies, becoming part of the global football culture.

Culture & Language
International football academies offer a full-immersion cultural experience. You’ll experience the world like never before, and carry the memories with you for a lifetime. Language immersion gives you the fastest possible learning curve, with an insider view of what life is really like in a foreign country.

If you’re making the journey, you should take time to see the sights. Will the football academy you attend give you time to see famous monuments or historical icons? Make sure you’ll get a chance to enjoy the culture of the area as much as the soccer aspect of it.

Football academies in across the world can give you the language, culture and football experience of a lifetime. So the real question is, where do you want to go?

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