Scotland Boys Club – Academy of Football operate independently as an unofficial ‘talent centre’ for any professional senior club who operate Development Centres to progress youngsters who will eventually ‘promote’ to their Professional Youth set-up.

In effect, we recruit the youngsters (students) from the age of five years upwards and by the time they are seven or eight years of age they will be ready to progress through the professional youth system.

Selection Methods

Professional Scouts.

Due to the fact that we have a very close relationship with many professional scouts in Scotland and a fair number in England, the youngsters are watched, observed, reported on and scrutinised on a weekly basis. Any ‘high standard’ students may then be invited into regional Development Centres on a weekly basis. This can be, depending on the Club concerned, for 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months or even for some clubs – up to a year.

All these ‘mini sessions’ are renewable ‘sessions’. Once the youngster has attained the age of ten, the option is available to the professional Club to sign these youngsters on a professional youth contract.

If this happens, and the Club do wish to sign the youngster, this means that at the end of the youngsters (Under 10’s) season, they need to terminate their contract with Scotland Boys Club – Academy of Football and join the professional club with the view to playing in the professional youth league the following season.

There they will play against all the other senior clubs’ professional youth teams. It is normal that the professional club will step up training to at least two evenings per week, provide the youngsters with a development action plan, and also introduce a sports science programme to assist in their development. It is indeed an opportunity to give youngsters a real chance of becoming a professional football player.

Scotland Boys Club – Academy of Football has very close links, and currently have several students training with the following clubs:

By Recommendation

The other method of selection tends to be by ‘personal recommendation’. Every three months, students at the Academy are given mini-appraisals. Sometimes these are simply verbal appraisals, sometimes written.

This information is relayed back to the Academy Director, and he in turn will speak to a variety of clubs on the player’s (parents) behalf.

These recommendations are usually taken up and the student is invited into the Development Centre for a block (usually six weeks or so). Again this can be extended depending on the progress of the youngster.