Inside football academy helping rejected players "aim for the stars and their dreams”

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It’s a familiar tale - the promising academy footballer chasing a dream before painful rejection, hopes dashed, cast aside and churned out.

When the potential rewards are so great, it’s little wonder that it remains the ultimate aim for so many starry-eyed youngsters desperate to reach the top. But when less than one per cent make it to the Premier League , it’s no real surprise that so many eventually fall out of the game completely.

Few career paths are as ruthless or carry a greater chance of disappointment. Yet while the top clubs continue to look for the next big star, Kinetic Foundation are bridging the gap between success and heartbreak, by offering young players an alternative route to achieving their ambitions - on or off the pitch.

Few people will perhaps understand both sides of the coin more than Chelsea interim head coach Calum McFarlane, who was in charge of the club’s billion-pound squad at Wembley Stadium in the FA Cup final this month.

Not just because he’s now working with some of the world ’s elite players. But because he’s also worked with those fighting tooth and nail for a shot at the big time. McFarlane spent six years coaching at Kinetic while one of his backroom staff, Harry Hudson, founded the organisation alongside James Fotheringham following the London riots in 2011.

Initially set up as an initiative to tackle the challenges faced by disadvantaged young people in south London, the foundation has evolved into a successful football and education charity with its own academy - boasting a track record of 83 players who have moved on to professional clubs.

After starting with free community football sessions - which they still run today - Kinetic are now into their 15th year and have supported nearly 13,000 young people. They have partnered with global football movement Common Goal for World Football Giving Day in a bid to take that number to 15,000 by the end of 2026.

But it’s not just about those who can go on to make a living playing the beautiful game.

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As Paula Kowalska, Kinetic’s head of marketing and partnerships, explained to Mirror Football: “We have 400 young people on the programme, about 200 leaving every year at the end of Year 13.

“The sad reality of football is five to ten of those usually get signed with professional contracts but that means probably 190 don’t and our job is to support them through.

“Coming into the programme, a lot say I want to be a professional footballer. By the time they leave, they say I want to be a professional footballer but if not I might do X, Y or Z.

“We say to them, ‘there is a chance that you might not make it as a professional footballer but look around you, you’re probably playing on the pitch with someone who might and when they do they might need an agent, a lawyer, an estate agent. Maybe you’re playing with someone who will trust you over someone they don’t know because they really grew up with them’.”

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Kinetic’s provision operates across three pillars.

Their community work focuses on free football sessions for under-16 boys and girls at times of high crime and anti-social behaviour in south and north London as a way for them to meet new friends and get active in a safe environment. It’s estimated that Kinetic reach around 1,000 young people per week through their sessions.

Their academy sector then works as a full-time sixth form programme, currently working across nine school sites in partnership with Harris Academy, teaching A Levels or B-Tech qualifications alongside football training two to four times per week. Across the academy, Kinetic play around 300 matches per year, over 40 of which are showcase fixtures designed for players to show off their talents to scouts from professional clubs.

Some of their graduates are already well-known names, including Southampton midfielder Joe Aribo; Nottingham Forest ’s Omar Richards - a Bundesliga winner with Bayern Munich currently on loan at Portuguese side Rio Ave; and Wales international Rhys Norrington-Davies, who spent last season on loan at QPR from Sheffield United.

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Thirdly, their futures programme offers an alternative career path to becoming a professional footballer that not just provides a fall-back option if they don't make the grade, but also one if their career is cut short or post-retirement.

One graduate, Khiani, secured an apprenticeship with a top insurance firm, then got a call from Southampton FC a few days later and signed a pro goalkeeper contract, before moving to Hull City in February. Kowalska said: “He’s chosen that route but knows that if at some point it doesn’t work out or if something changes or when he retires from football, all of these options are available to him as well.”

Another graduate, Raphael, enrolled in the programme after being released from a club where he’d been from age 10 to 16, who had also covered his placement at a boarding school for the duration.

Elvira González-Vallés, head of marketing at Common Goal, said: "The ambition with World Football Giving Day is to create a new tradition for everyone to take action. If somebody wants to create an event in their back garden, they can do that. What we really want to achieve is a mobilisation of people in football to give back, because we believe real progress can only happen with collective action."

“This is the big thing about football. At 16, if you’ve been through an academy, it’s almost like your entire identity gets stripped away from you when you don’t earn that contract,” Kowalska said. “So for us, it’s then rebuilding their confidence and belief in themselves, both on and off the pitch.”

After utilising Kinetic’s mentoring and networking opportunities, Antwi landed an apprenticeship and is now looking to set up his own business. Kowalska said: “I asked him recently what changed and he said in Year 13, something snapped and he realised ‘I’m not going to be a pro footballer, I need to make the most of what you’re offering me.’”

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Kinetic’s overriding aim is about empowering young people to successfully transition into either employment, training, university or the professional game - with a current success rate of 97%.

What’s even more inspiring is when you consider that, of this year’s cohort, 56% reside in the most deprived areas of the UK, one in three are eligible for free school meals, while 81% come from ethnic and marginalised communities.

“We know the UK still has high levels of young people who are in need and who leave school and don’t have an option to what they’re going to do, low levels of social mobility,” Kowalska said. “Our mission is to use football to engage and inspire young people to break that cycle to empower them to complete their post-16 education and achieve their full potential.

“When I first started, we had a launch ceremony in a beautiful building in central London. We went up in a lift and when we got to the 14th floor, one of the boys took a step back and said to me: ‘Miss, I don’t belong here.’

“It’s a bit daunting and some of these guys haven’t really been to these environments. We were then able to introduce him to a graduate of ours from the year before who is working in that same building.”

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The foundation is funded through various means, from Government support, grants, corporate trusts, as well as donations. After recently partnering with St Mary’s university, Kinetic are now hoping to raise £15,000 on World Football Giving Day on May 26 to help support their next project - growing their women’s programme.

Meanwhile, the work to help young people “aim for the stars and their dreams” goes on.

“That’s what sets us apart a little bit,” Kowalska said. “We’re not just a football academy, not just a youth charity, not just an education programme, but combine all those things into one cohesive idea and over two years we hope that builds successful happy humans who believe in themselves.

“For us it’s always, if you can’t see it, you can’t be it. If you don’t show them what exists and what’s out there, how are you meant to know?”