Stars on hunt for Elite talent after setting up academy
TO understand the culture Rafa Benitez has built in the Newcastle United dressing room, look no further than the Northumbria University playing fields on Coach Lane during the school holidays.
Scores of kids aged between five and 16 turn out on a daily basis to have fun playing footballing – and most importantly to improve their own game through UEF Aqualified coaching.
After-school sessions have also been launched, meaning children can benefit from top-class coaching throughout term-time too.
The Newcastle Elite Academy was set up by four current Magpies but only one of them – Paul Dummett – is a Geordie born and bred.
Matt Ritchie, Rob Elliot and Dwight Gayle were not raised on Tyneside but all three have taken the area to heart – and they are determined to give something back to the region’s grassroots.
The players make an effort to attend the coaching sessions whenever they can and offer guidance, as well as posing for photos and signing autographs.
Just four months after the initiative began, the academy is already flourishing.
“It has been fantastic. We have been running for a few months now and we have had really good feedback from all the parents and kids involved,” Ritchie explained after posing for photos with some of the youngsters.
“Slowly we ae growing and trying to give the kids out there who are coming to the courses the best possible coaching and development - and hopefully they can take that back to their club sides.
“Long term we can hopefully continue to do that, build and then maybe even sooner rather than later we can become a feeder academy.
“I have just been in with the kids and they are ecstatic.
“They cannot wait to get back out there, but also to meet the lads involved is fantastic for them. They are all so passionate.
“It is brilliant for us as well to be able to come down and make a difference.
“It is really important for us to be involved. Our main focus is Newcastle United and performing for the team but we have done this and the lads who are involved, if you we do something then we want to do it properly.
“It is a commitment but something we are really enjoying and hopefully in the long run we can give something back.
“I have been around the country at a number of different clubs and I have never seen a crowd as passionate as up here and we want to give something back. It is what all the lads feel.
“The non-league set-up around here is very strong and that tells you there are players out there who can go on to play at a higher level - and if we can play a part in helping them achieve that then it would be fantastic.”
The Northern League has produced eight of the last nine FA Vase winners – including this year’s victors South Shields – and non-league football in the region is flourishing.
Ritchie hopes the Elite Academy can identify some of these players and offer them a platform to make it professionally.
He added: “Non-league clubs are winning the FA Vase every year, someone or other up here, and it is early days but hopefully in a few years we will be producing players and the club – Newcastle United – can be coming to watch sessions or games and poaching players and hopefully giving them the opportunity at that level.”
However, it is not just children who are set to benefit from the Newcastle Elite Academy.
Soon there will be an BTEC course for 16 to 18-year-olds, with the intention to encourage those who do not make it as professionals to earn the qualifications necessary to still forge a career within the game. Further details will be released within the coming weeks, but the course will begin next September.
Ritchie added: “It is for men and women who want to be involved in the professional game but also need to have a college course as well, or go into something important to helping them should they not make it as a footballer.
“A course like that will give you something to fall back on and hopefully, if you want to be a masseur or a physio or whatever it may be, we can give you a taste of the environment, what it is like and hopefully the BTEC course can be a link for those players who are not quite good enough to have a bit of know-how about the game.”
I’ve never seen a crowd as passionate as up here, and we want to give something back Matt Ritchie