How to become a Footballer

Most young boys who watch or participate in any level of football would like to follow in their hero’s footsteps.

So what does that involve? Good technical ability, dedication, good advice and support from qualified coaches and a will to listen and learn are a great starting point. Fun and competition in the right atmosphere is also a crucial ingredient.

At Bury F.C., I’d like to think we create all of those things!

The road from under 9s to professional football is a long one, but one that does happen at this club. The opportunity at a smaller club is greater than that of a Premiership giant, We cannot afford to go out and spend money on new players so we have to promote from our Youth System, Whenever the manager feels necessary. We know we have to continually keep producing young talent in order for the club to survive, and we take great satisfaction in watching players develop onto the 1st team and hopefully the Premiership and International stage nowing that we played a huge part in their footballing development. 

Bury FC boasts a pruod tadition of producing homegrown talent from its progressive Centre of Excellence through to the stage of 1st team football, players in the list below have not only gone on to play for our 1st team they have managed to ply their trade in the higher eschalons of league football. Kazim-Richards now playing in the Premiership with Sheff Utd, Nugent & Whaley now playing in the Championship with Preston, Nugent now an England U21 International interesting a number of top Premiership Clubs reportedly worth around 3million pounds, Whaley now being linked with Blackburn & Celtic.  The most important thing is Bury FC managed to blood these players at an early age all boys playing 1st team football at 18 years of age.not many clubs would be able to give their young players the chance to shine like we do at Bury.

Bury’s Manager Chris Casper (the former Youth team coach) relies heavily on Youth Development to strengthen his squad. In recent seasons,through the guidanceof Chris Casper and the present Youth team Manager Chris Beech the likes of Dave Nugent, Colin Kazim-Richards, Simon Whaley and Tom Kennedy, Nicky Adams,David Buchanan, Andy Parrish, have all come through the youth system to make an impact in the first team. Likewise, 1st year Professionals Damien Quigley, and Aaron Grundy have also made their 1st team debuts at the age of 17. 

Seven players have made the breakthrough to first team level in the past three years - a true reflection of the real opportunities at our club. It makes my job easier to motivate young players within our ranks to reach their ultimate objective when quoting the above statistic.

So have you got what it takes? If you live within 1 and a half hours travelling distance of the club, then through scouting, trial games and training, you could start on the pathway to living your dream by putting your foot on the first rung of the ladder at Bury F.C.

Ryan Kidd

Centre of Excellence Manager, Bury FC