Football business opportunities: Investing in a football franchise

Football is big business. The most popular sport in the world provides many business opportunities for passionate individuals to combine their love of the game with the chance to make money.

Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t an industry that is reserved for sheiks, oligarchs and those with seven or eight zeros to the funds in their bank accounts either. Business opportunities in football exist far beyond owning your own club or being a wealthy benefactor, neither of which will help you improve your financial situation anyway.

No, if you want to make money from the beautiful game at the same time as putting something back into the community, then there are other ways of doing it. One of the most increasingly popular methods is through a football coaching franchise, such as those run by We Make Footballers.

Here’s why investing in a football franchise is a brilliant business opportunity.

Coaching franchises are becoming big business in football

Let’s start by looking at franchises in general. Over the past four years, franchises in the United Kingdom have seen a 10 percent growth in numbers. There are now approximately 1,000 franchise systems in operation in the country employing over 620,000 people and contributing £15.1 billion to the economy.

When you combine the success of franchises in general with a sports industry worth an estimated £23.8 billion, then it isn’t hard to see that this is an area in which there is plenty of money to be made.

As football continues to grow in popularity, so do the number of children looking to hone their skills by signing up for coaching academies such as We Make Footballers. Women’s football in particular is providing a surge of interest thanks the Lionesses’ summer run to the World Cup semi finals coupled with the FA’s aim of doubling female participation in football by 2020 as more and more girls are starting to take up the game.

With Wembley Stadium sold out to watch Phil Neville’s side against Germany in November, Women’s Super League fixtures attracting record crowds in venues like Stamford Bridge and the Etihad Stadium and the likes of Steph Houghton and Lucy Bronze becoming household names, this is an exciting time to be looking at football franchise opportunities.

 

Investing in a football franchise gets you onboard a business with a strong reputation

You might be wondering why, if you’re going to look for a football business opportunity, you shouldn’t just set up your own company from scratch? Well, when it comes to the business of football, reputations carry more weight than they do in other sectors.

At professional level, people view themselves as more than just customers of a particular brand. They are attracted to a club based on factors such as success and reputation much more than locality; why else are there so many Manchester United supporters based in the south of England?

The same is true when it comes to football businesses further down the pyramid. If a parent is looking for the best options when it comes to helping their children take the first steps in what they hope will be a bright future in football, then more often than not they’ll select the football coaching academy with the most success stories and the best reputation.

By becoming a franchise owner rather than attempting to start from scratch, you take on an already established reputation and image. That cuts out the lengthy and costly process of building a name for yourself, which can often take years.

You’ll also be taking on proven management and work practices, which is a big help given how unique the football business is.

A football franchise business can improve lives as well as make money

Despite the example that is often set by the Premier League and top level players, the football business is about much more than making money. Nobody is going to invest in football or set up their own business in order to fail of course, but football goes far beyond the numbers as it can be a vehicle for real change across the country.

By setting up a coaching franchise, you can help give kids the chance to play the game in a way they might not have had before. That in turn creates opportunities for them to become better people as well as players, something which We Make Footballers pride themselves on.

The likes of Raheem Sterling and Kyle Walker credit football and their coaches for ensuring that they didn’t fall into gangs or crime. And while not many players will go onto achieve what those two have in the game, a football coaching academy keeps children off the streets, gives them somewhere to go and offers them a focus in life.

If you’re a businessman or woman who has always dreamed of owning a business which offers opportunities for people to genuinely change their lives, then football is one way to do it. The sport is about much more than money at the end of the day, which is why the football business is so appealing to so many – with coaching and franchising one of the best ways to get involved.

 

Where to get Football Coaching Resources

 

 

Football is a sport that is always evolving and that means that as a coach, you need to stay ahead of the curve. The best coaches are those with their fingers on the pulse, who have a wealth of football coaching resources and who are constantly reinventing themselves to include the latest ideas, practices and style within their sessions.

The big question then is how does a coach stay relevant? How do you know increase your knowledge level as a football coach to ensure that you are delivering the best possible sessions to the players under your charge?

Thankfully, there are plenty of football coaching resources out there, ranging from online advice to magazines to football coaching books. Here are some of our favourites which can help you as a football coach stay at the forefront of the industry.

Grassroots Football Coaches Library Online Football Coaching Resource

The Grassroots Football Coaches Library is one of the most frequently updated football coaching resources in the United Kingdom. They normally produce articles for coaches once every couple of days on subjects ranging from talent identification, how to ensure that children aren’t being over trained and ways in which you can adapt coaching sessions to suit seasonal conditions, a particularly interesting topic given the wet autumn we’ve experienced so far.

Aside from this constant flow of information about the coaching world, there are resources including coaching session plans, handbooks and the prevention and cure of injuries. GRF have a whole section devoted to the best ways in which football coaches can help their players abide by the FA’s Respect campaign.

They even provide guidance as to how to run your own football tournament as well as offering the opportunity to take part in their own competitions held at professional venues including Stamford Bridge, the Bet 365 Stadium and St George’s Park. In terms of an online football coaching resource, you’d be hard pushed to find anything better in the world than GRF.

Pep Guardiola Attacking Tactics – by Athanasios Terzis

The full title of Athanasisos Terzis football coaching book which focuses on the methods of the Manchester City boss is Pep Guardiola Attacking Tactics Tactical Analysis and Sessions From Manchester City’s 4-3-3. Essentially, it’s a football coaching resource that is based solely on Guardiola and how he built and coached the first ever English team to win the domestic treble. Terzis analysis of Guardiola’s 4-3-3 which also delivered the first back-to-back Premier League titles for a decade has been broken down into 12 full training sessions for coaches to implement, featuring 70 different practices and variations.

At its most basic level, the book aims to help coaches run training sessions which teach the importance of possession, how to create space and impart the technical ability of some of the best players in the world. For the more advanced, it looks at some of Guardiola’s innovative football coaching ideas such as inverted full backs, false nine and 10s and how Manchester City’s 4-3-3 is designed to overcome any opponent lining up in any formation.

You’ll struggle to find a more comprehensive football coaching resource that focuses so brilliantly on the greatest manager of our times.

 

Four Four Two Performance Centre – Magazine and Online

While many magazines fall by the wayside as we increasingly live our lives online, the ultimate footballing monthly in Four Four Two continues to be strong. Packed with fascinating player interviews, features on quirky footballing incidents from the past and a look at the sport from around the world, it remains a must by each month for football fans everywhere.

As well as all that, Four Four Two also happens to be an excellent football coaching resource. Each edition features a section called The Performance Centre in which different professional players and coaches offer advice on aspects of the game.

One month you might have Olivier Giroud talking about how to lose your marker in the box, Jordan Pickford going through drills to improve reaction time for goalkeepers and Arsene Wenger talking about the attributes that would make a Premier League manager sit up and take notice of a young player. The next, three different stars talk about three different subjects. The breadth and depth of knowledge is outstanding.

As such, the Four Four Two Performance Centre offers a wealth of football coaching resources. If you aren’t a subscriber, they post their best bits online too on the Four Four Two website, although the magazine really is worth a fiver of your money every month.

Living on the Volcano – by Michael Calvin

Okay, so this isn’t actually a footballing coaching resource but its still essential reading for anyone who harbours hopes of becoming a manager or coach within the game. Author Michael Calvin gains unparalleled access to the lives of some of the UK’s leading football managers such as Eddie Howe, Garry Monk, Mark Hughes, Alan Pardew, and Aidy Boothroyd.

The result is a fascinating book that looks at the dedication bordering on obsession that it takes to become a top football coach. The coaches stories are interwoven as they all talk candidly about their routes to the top, what day-to-day life is really like when presiding over a budget of millions and how the beautiful game can sometimes turn ugly despite which, their love for it never diminishes.

Never before has there been a study quite like this one into what makes a modern-day manager tick. And that makes it vital reading for every coach out there.

Football Coaching Techniques

As a coach, what football training technique you employ in your role can have a huge impact on your player’s development and their enjoyment of the game.

Every great manager has their own soccer coaching methods and every individual player will respond in different ways to different training styles.

We’re going to take a look at three of the most popular football training techniques, their pros and cons, the success that they’ve delivered in the professional game and how you might be able to use them in your own coaching career.

Authoritarian Coaching

An authoritarian style of football coaching works on the premise that the coach always knows best and what they say goes. In terms of youth coaching, it’s comparative to how a stricter teacher treats the children in their class in school. Because football is a team game, discipline and control are both important and an authoritarian coaching style can still help in both of these traits into players. Jose Mourinho has employed this football training technique to great effect throughout his career, drilling tactics and improvement into his players mercilessly in order to help them overcome the opposition. Mourinho has clearly enjoyed success from this coaching method, but it’s also one of the reasons that he hasn’t lasted beyond a third season in any of his managerial roles. Players become tired and drained very quickly when they’re being controlled to such a degree, so although an authoritarian style can deliver short-term results, over a longer period its impact is negligible. For younger players, this can also have a damaging effect on their long-term progression and even make them fall out of love with the game. When it comes to youth football training techniques, an authoritarian approach is one best avoided.

Democratic Coaching

A democratic style of football coaching is the polar opposite to how the authoritarian coach operates. Players are encouraged to share in the decision making, taking the lead on what sort of training drills they wish to do and how they should react in certain on-the-pitch scenarios. Think back to that night in Nice during Euro 2016 when England were embarrassed by Iceland. One of the most striking images was the way in which Wayne Rooney, Dele Alli and the rest could be seen looking hopelessly towards the bench as they struggled to come up with any ideas of their own to overcome a rigid Iceland defence.

Democratic coaching is designed to help players become more independent by encouraging them to think for themselves.This approach lends itself to producing more creative players who can work a way out of difficult situations without needing to be spoon fed instructions by their coach or manager.

This is what Pep Guardiola does so well. Yes, his players are all technically superb and he can often be seen on the edge of his technical area pointing and waving his arms in the air in a desperate attempt to get instructions across.

But his Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City sides have all been so dangerous because they out thought as well as outplayed the opposition. That’s the sort of players that a democratic coaching style produces. There are pitfalls to a democratic approach, however. Giving young players such a level of control can be dangerous, especially as they do need to understand that with freedom comes responsibility.

 

Casual Coaching

Casual coaching is perhaps a misleading title for our third and final football training technique, as it’s in fact all about making the game fun. There’s a certain school of thought that runs along the lines of if you employ a soccer coaching method that prioritises enjoyment over anything else, you’ll produce a happy collection of players which will eventually lead to a successful team.

This management style works in two ways. Firstly, players learn more and improve at a faster rate if they’re doing something they enjoy. Secondly, a strong team spirit brought about by a happy environment can help a side reach new heights.

Jurgen Klopp’s football coaching style has been put down as 30 percent tactics,70 percent team building. The Liverpool manager believes that turning his team into a family who would run through brick walls for each other is the best path to success and he goes about trying to achieve this by making football fun.

It can be seen as a risky coaching style; if you’ve got individuals who are lazy or become too casual, then you might find that individuals never progress because there is no incentive to do so. But if you can create a fun environment which is also challenging at the same time, then you’ll be employing a coaching method which allows young players to both thrive and enjoy their football.

Recovery from soccer for kids

 

Have you ever wondered how kids can have so much energy, all of the time? Even after a gruelling football session that would leave you aching for a couple of days afterwards, they’ll be running around within a few hours and wanting to play all over again.

It all comes down the different physiology between children and adults. Young players have a high resistance to the effects of fatigue for a variety of reason, although the most obvious is that whereas an adult has an obvious variability between their exercise heart rate and their post exercise heart rate, this is less profound in under 15s. That helps them feel less tired.

These differences mean that the recovery approach for kids following football can be different to that of adults. Here’s how kids should be recovering.

Warm down immediately afterwards

The purpose of a warm down for players is to prevent the build up of lactic acid which in turn is important for avoiding injuries. This is less vital for kids, but they should still partake in a warm down immediately after training and games.

Their warm down is more about stretching muscles and engraining good habits. Because kids are constantly growing, stretching after exercise when their muscles will have expanded through exertion is important to help maintain a healthy growth.

Warm downs can be fun, these can be made into games or you can play music to keep the players engrossed in the activity. The more they build a positive rapport with warm-downs, the more likely they will continue these and gather a deeper understand as to why they are neccessary.

By incorporating a warm down into their football routine from a young age, you’ll also be making it more likely that they’ll continue the practice into their adult football career when a thorough stretch afterwards becomes so important.

Give their body the right fuel

It’s important that kids refuel after games in order to replenish the nutrients that they’ve lost and help repair the muscles used during the activity. When you consider the food sources that adults are recommended to eat after playing such as wholemeal products, green veg and items high in protein, you might think that this sounds like a right nightmare – after all, how many kids eat their greens without a struggle?

The good news though is that those foods replace energy, something that kids have in abundance. When it comes to refuelling, it’s more important that they have something to help their muscles. So, get them a milk chocolate drink which will supply protein and carbohydrates in one hit. It could also be a peanut butter sandwich which is a tasty and easy treat. That’s the sort of recovery we can all get behind.

With fuel, the most important thing is to ensure that they always have at least one item packed and water in their sports bags.

Use cold water treatment

For adults, there are many different techniques which are used after playing in order to try and enhance recovery. These include cold water immersion though ice baths or ice packs, hot water hydrotherapy treatment, massages, compression garments and low intensity exercise. This may seem quite intense though!

Because kids are less susceptible to fatigue and tiredness, these methods tend to have less impact on recovery. The one that does appear to have an effect is cold water immersion as it helps to stimulate muscles, an important part of the growing process. A cold shower or brief ice treatment can speed up recovery and remove any stiffness that a child might feel after playing.

However, sleep is the key to all recovery! Ronaldo sleeps 12hours per night, so this is a brilliant stat to share with your players so that they understand the importance of sleep. If the best player in the world does it, then surely all players can take on the advice and the importance of an early night!

Take a sensible amount of time off

While adults have to carefully manage their schedule to avoid burnout and an increase in the likelihood of injury, kids are able to play on a much more regular basis. In fact, they could take part in football every day for five consecutive days if they really wanted to.

You do still have to watch a child’s workload though. The American Academy of Paediatrics  recommends one day of rest from physical activity a week and no more than five days of one particular sport.

That is because playing too much of a certain sport that requires the constant use of a certain set of muscles can harm development and growth. So, your child shouldn’t use their leg muscles in football on more than five days in a given week, but if they go swimming twice a week then that’s fine. In fact, other sports can aid the long-term recovery process by increasing fitness and improving other muscles groups.

The AAP also says that children should have two months off a year from a particular sport. That is obviously far harder to implement if you’ve got a football-mad kid, but it does go to highlight the importance of trying to take a break during the summer months.

We hope that you have found this article beneficial in helping your player become the best they can be and recovery from their busy sporting schedule!

How to find a football coaching position

 

You’ve got the relevant FA coaching qualifications and you’re ready to put your expertise to good use. So, how do you go about finding a football coaching position?

Well, that rather depends on the sort of role that you are looking for. Are you seeking full-time employment and a career in football, work at a school delivering a PE curriculum or are you looking to help out as a volunteer at a local grassroots club?

Because there are so many different ways in which you can coach football, there are many different ways in which you can find that perfect football coaching position for you. Here are four to get you started.

Volunteer with a local club

Volunteering with your local club is arguably the most straightforward way in which you can find a football coaching position. Teams up and down the country are always on the look out for new coaches to come in and help them out and by doing so, you’ll be giving something back to the local community.

There are a whole host of roles that need filling, ranging from taking coaching sessions to going full-on Pep Guardiola and taking over as a manager or head of coaching. You may have a local side who you’ve helped out with previously as part of gaining your qualifications that you could return to or you might have friends or relatives who are already involved with a club and would love to have you along.

Alternatively, you can speak to your local County FA about the opportunities that exist near you. They’ll have a list of affiliated clubs and will be able to put you in touch with those looking for new coaches.

Become an assistant manager

If you’re lacking in experience having only just completed your badges, then one way to pick up expertise is by working under a more experienced coach as their assistant. That way, you can learn from them, becoming the proverbial sponge which soaks up ideas and innovations to incorporate into their own coaching style.

That’s how some of the best managers in the world reached the top of the game. Jose Mourinho began life as a translator and Pep Guardiola was an astute student of many different bosses during his playing career.

By offering your services as an assistant, you can find a route into football and develop as a coach at the same time.

Join a football coaching academy

Becoming a coach with a football coaching academy or coaching provider is a brilliant way to find your first football coaching position. At We Make Footballers, our franchise owners can offer flexible positions that work around you and which will help you gain further experience on your career path.

Have a look at the We Make Footballers academies in your area and get in touch to see if any are recruiting new coaches.

There could even be the opportunity to become a franchise owner yourself in the future. Running your own We Make Footballers academy can turn the dream of a full time job in football into reality, as well as offering you the chance to earn well financially doing something you love.

Find positions online

If you’re looking for a paid position, then your best bet may be to go down the route that most jobseekers do – looking online. There are several websites which have a large number of coaching positions listed, including the UK Sport site.

These aren’t just senior positions either – quite clearly, when the Manchester United or Arsenal job becomes available, they don’t advertise online. Rather, these are for coaching roles such as with academies or community schemes which can offer an excellent route into a coaching career.

Good luck in your coaching journey!

The benefits of volunteering in football

 

Volunteers are the backbone of grassroots football across the country. An estimated 400,000 people give up their time every week to help ensure that the 37,000 clubs operating in England can continue to offer the opportunity for people to play the beautiful game. Without them, the sport as we know it wouldn’t exist.

If you’re considering volunteering in football to keep the game we love running, then here are some of the many benefits.

You’ll be giving something back to the local community

One of the main reasons that people take up volunteering in all walks of life – not just football – is to give something back to the local community. Volunteering can make a huge difference by providing opportunities that may not otherwise exist.

Maybe you benefited from coaches giving up their time to coach you and your friends when you were younger and want to offer the same to the next generation. You might wish to help young people stay off the streets by giving them an alternative way to spend their time. Or you might just feel that football can change the lives of people for the better.

Whatever your reasoning for wanting to give something back, volunteering in football is a brilliant way of doing it.

You can change lives

On that last point, football volunteers can genuinely change lives. There are countless examples of professional players at the very top of the game such as Kyle Walker or Raheem Sterling who are on record as saying that without the help of the coaches they had as children, they could have ended up going down a much darker path.

That’s the power that football has. You might have a coach from when your played junior football who you look back on fondly 20 years later, tying him into great memories from your youth. You could be that coach that kids of today are still talking about in two decades time.

You could help develop the next superstar

Imagine if you’re sat at home watching the 2030 World Cup Final when in the very last minute of extra time, England score the greatest goal in the competition’s history to become champions for the first time in 64 years.

The goal scorer? It’s only that player that you discovered and coached from the age of seven, right the way through his junior football career. You helped put him on that path to greatness, changing his life and sport in this country.

Ok, so England winning a World Cup with a goal scored by one of your players might seem farfetched. But if one of your players does go onto make it into an academy or as a professional, you’ll feel an immense sense of pride for having played a part of their journey.

 

It can lead to a full-time position and career

Many of those who now work permanently in football in various different positions originally started out by giving up just a few hours a week in volunteer roles. This is especially true of coaches.

There are countless stories of people who did their FA Level 1 qualification in order to help out at a local club but ended up enjoying it so much that they progressed through the coaching ranks and wound up in a full-time career.

You could start out volunteering to help out your local Under 7s side once a week at training and find yourself a few years down the line running your own We Make Footballers academy, turning a hobby into a job you love.

You’ll make new friends with a common interest

If you’re considering volunteering in football, then presumably it’s because you like football. And the other volunteers you might meet are presumably doing it for the same reasons. Volunteering is a great opportunity to meet like-minded people and make friends over a common interest.

One of the major benefits of kids taking up football is to meet new people and expand their social circles – but the same is also true for adults. What better way is there to do that than volunteering and discovering people who love the game as much as you do?

How to become a football coach in Europe

 

As the home of some of the biggest clubs, the best leagues and a host of countries where football is insanely popular, Europe leads the way in the development of coaches and coaching techniques.

That makes it a popular destination for students of the game to come and hone their coaching skills. Here’s how to become a football coach in Europe.

The UEFA Convention on the Mutual Recognition of Coaching

UEFA , the governing body, established its Convention on the Mutual Recognition of Coaching Qualifications in 1997. Despite its fancy title, this is actually a pretty basic idea – that every single coach in Europe should be qualified to a continental standard.

As well as ensuring that those working in football have demonstrated the necessary ability to work with players, it also allows for freedom of movement across the continent without managers or coaches having to retake qualifications set by every governing body.

That’s why Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola can move from Spain to Germany to England and not have to re-sit examinations or qualifications. It’s the reason Brighton and Hove Albion’s Graham Potter was able to begin his managerial career with Swedish club Ostersunds. It means that any coach from any country in Europe who is qualified can work elsewhere on the continent.

This makes for a diverse and multi-cultural football environment with new ideas and coaching styles always improving the game.

What are UEFA’s coaching qualifications?

UEFA offers qualifications for coaches at three levels. The UEFA B Licence focuses on helping coaches to meet the technical, tactical, physical, psychological and social needs of players as well as developing decision making.

Next comes UEFA A, which aims to develop the technical and tactical skills needed to make a coach thoroughly effective when working in an 11v11 environment.

Finally, there is the UEFA Pro Licence. This is the qualification that every manager has to have in order to be allowed to work in the top leagues across Europe. It builds on a coach’s technical knowledge via winning team leadership and management strategies that will challenge the individuals knowledge and understanding of what it is to be a coach.

These different qualifications take many months and even years to secure.

There are other UEFA coaching qualifications for those looking at becoming specialists in youth coaching, goalkeeper training and even futsal.

How do I gain the qualifications?

UEFA themselves don’t actually run the courses. Instead, they are organised and delivered by national associations who have met the minimum criteria and standards set out by the continental body.

In England, that’s the Football Association. There are actually two FA qualifications that coaches must gain before they begin their UEFA B Licence.

The most basic of these is the FA Level 1 which offers an introduction into coaching, helping to facilitate appropriate practices and sessions for children and improving the football environment. That is followed by the FA Level 2 which builds on the basics and begins to shape a coaching philosophy and deliver more advanced sessions.

Anyone can sign up for the FA Level 1 to begin their journey to becoming a football coach. Some will choose to pay and do it as an individual while others may be able to find a local club who are looking for new coaches to join them on a volunteer basis and who will fund the basic training required as a result. This can be a fantastic way to get started on your football journey through both classroom and practical learning, not to mention having a positive impact on your local community.

What happens once I’m qualified?

Once you’re qualified, you’ll be in a position whereby you can offer your services to many different clubs, academies or professional coaching providers – and they will be very much in demand.

Grassroots clubs are always on the lookout for people with Level 1 to come in and help them out. Coaching academies such as those run by We Make Footballers can take on suitably qualified individuals and there is even the prospect of running your own franchise business as a full-time career.

And for those who go all the way to the UEFA Pro Licence, the sky really is the limit. Spain, Germany, England – you’ll be ready to follow in the footsteps of Guardiola.

How to get a job at a football club

If you’re a football fan, then working at a professional club is probably the dream job. You’ll be in an environment you love doing something you really enjoy and making a difference in a sport that you were brought up on, not to mention supporting your club directly through your day to day work. What’s not to like?

Of course, getting a job at a football club isn’t easy. It’s a highly competitive industry worth billions of pounds to the economy and as such, there are lots of people out there who want a piece of the pie.

How can you stand out from the crowd? Here are some tips for getting a job at a football club.

Explore all aspects of the industry

Football is about so much more than the 22 players out there on pitch. At elite level, there are nearly as many coaches and technical staff as there are players.

Sports science experts help treat and prevent injuries, nutritionists look after the dietary requirements of players to ensure that they are fuelled to perform at optimum levels, PR and communication experts look after clubs and individuals’ reputations and media duties – the list of roles available really is endless.

That’s why you should explore all aspects of the industry. You might discover opportunities that you didn’t know previously existed. By having a broader view of the wider way in which a football club works, you’ll be in a much better position when it comes to obtaining a job.

Find a way into football

One of the most effective ways of securing a job with a football club is by discovering a route into the industry. At professional level, not many clubs are just going to hire someone off the streets. They’ll look for those already working in the business and who can bring their expertise from the role they are already doing into their new club.

Take our We Make Footballers franchisees for example. Many of them are also employed by professional clubs in a number of roles including as talent scouts and coaches. Clubs know that they must be successful coaches in order to run a franchise and that they have access to some of the best players in the local area who they could therefore recommend for trials.

By finding ways such as these into the industry, you’ll be boosting your chances of being employed by a football club.

Experience other sports – not just football

Here’s a little bit of out-the-box thinking – don’t just limit yourself to football. Some of the best coaches in the world are those who have spent time looking at other sports, taking ideas from them and them incorporating them into their own.

Pep Guardiola took a year out between managing Barcelona and Bayern Munich to study the game – and other games – and hone his management skills. As a youth team coach at Manchester United and now the Football Association’s National Coach Developer, Paul McGuinness has helped to produce some of the best players in the world with his philosophy largely influenced by the 1v1 training that basketball players go through.

There is much that can be learned from the way in which other sports train their athletes on the pitch and how those sports operate off it. If you can demonstrate you’ve got fresh ideas from across the spectrum, you’ll be a very attractive proposition to football.

Jump at every opportunity

The more impressive your footballing CV, the more impressive you’ll be to a club. Being involved at elite level is a challenge in an industry that never stands still, which is why those have demonstrated a willingness to step out of their comfort zone will come across as the sort of people who can thrive within it.

The more challenges you face, the more experience you’ll gain and the more suited you’ll look to working in what can be a very demanding industry.