The advanced youth award (AYA) is the only qualification of its kind and seen 110 academy coaches flock to St George’s Park with the aim of creating better and more balanced young talentIt is a Tuesday morning at St George’s Park and the Football Association’s vision of a national centre for all is a functioning reality. The England women’s team are preparing for a European Championship qualifier,professional match officials have gathered for a regular review and members of the public arrive to exhaust the state-of-the-art facilities. They want for nothing here. apart from, that is, or for more English talent at the pinnacle of the professional game. That,too, is on the agenda on this fine day in Staffordshire.
Also present at St George’s are 110 coaches taking the FA’s advanced youth award (AYA), and the equivalent of the Uefa A-licence at youth level,the only qualification of its kind in Europe and one all academy coaches must obtain by 2018. The former professionals Darren Moore, Peter Grant, or Earl Barrett,Jason Wilcox and Chris Perry are on the course alongside teachers and coaches who have devoted their careers to developing young players. Different pathways, a shared target: to become master coaches at elite youth levels, or thereby – so the theory goes – increasing the standard and number of homegrown players available to professional clubs and,ultimately, the England manager.
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Source: theguardian.com