Club are looking for mentors for future City stars
CITY are on the hunt for ‘houseparents’ to help look after their stars of the future.
The Blues are advertising four roles involving the care and mentoring of some of the club’s dozens of young academy hopefuls.
A part-time role, it involves sleeping over at the state-of-theart City Football Academy (CFA) opposite the Eithad Stadium, where the first team also train and where many of the young players stay as boarders.
Bosses say they want successful applicants, who they would like to be multi-lingual, to take the youngsters under their wing and look after their physical and emotional welfare by creating ‘a safe, secure, family style environment’ at the training ground.
The guardians will ‘support the creation of a lifestyle and home environment conducive to developing world-class football players’ the club says.
As well as ensuring strict compliance with safeguarding rules and liaising with the kids’ parents over their welfare, the role also involves taking them on trips to support their development.
An advert for the job, titled houseparent, on the City Football Group website says: “Working individually or as a team of two, you will be responsible for the welfare and safety of up to 38 elite Academy boy football players who currently live on site at the accommodation at Manchester City Football Club’s Academy.
“You will be required to set high standards of behaviour whilst supporting every player you are responsible for in their personal and professional development.
“You will play an influential role in supporting these players to develop key life skills and take them on trips to enhance their all-round development by providing a high quality away from home experience.”
The job spec says previous experience of looking after three or more children and young adults and a ‘good understanding of boarding or residential childcare operations’ are essential.
It also says successful applicants will ‘have empathy with, and understanding of, the needs of young players living away from home and in boarding accommodation’ whilst possessing ‘excellent leadership skills and the ability to ensure the rules and regulations of the boarding accommodation are adhered to.’
Conversational competence in French, Spanish, Portuguese or another European language is also stated as desirable.
No salary is mentioned and it says hours will be agreed in advance of start date but they warn it primarily consists of weekend working. The closing date for applications is June 18.
The sprawling CFA, which cost around £200m to build, opened in 2014 and includes accommodation for first-team players as well as academy stars amongst its array of state-of -the -art facilities.