An interview with Liverpool Football Academy

Interview and pictures by Leslie Tan/Red Sports

At the recent adidas +challenge Regional Final in Hong Kong, Liverpool Football Academy coaches Adam Flynn and Magnus Alford were on hand to conduct a coaching clinic for some of the best young talent from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and China.

Red Sports: So where do you get your footballing talent for the Liverpool Football Academy?
Magnus Alford (MA): The kids must live within a one-hour radius of Liverpool Football Academy and they have to be at least 9-years-old. They come in three nights a week for training after school for sessions that last one and a half hours.

Red Sports: So there are no players that come from outside England?
MA: There are but they only can come in at the age of sixteen for European nationals and eighteen for other countries. That’s FIFA (football’s governing body) regulations. At the moment there is Astrid Ajernervich, a Swede, and Martin Hansen, who’s Danish.

Red Sports: How do the footballers juggle studies and football?
MA: If the kid is good enough, they are taken out of the school system to train full-time. They have to sit for their National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) to make sure that they have something to fall back on. We have a full-time person at the Academy who looks after the study needs of the player.

Red Sports: What’s a typical day like for a footballer at the Academy?
Adam Flynn (AF): The kids come into the Academy at 7 am to have breakfast. Their first training session at 9am is to work on speed and weaknesses. Then at 11 am there is a second session focused on their technical skills. The third session at 2pm is to play the game.

Red Sports: How many players actually make it through to play full-time professional football?
MA: My best estimate is that only 1-3% of the players make it.

Red Sports: What are the qualities that you look for?
AF:  We look for four qualities: technique, attitude, balance and speed. Speed has become more important now in the modern game.

Red Sports: How do you decide on whom to keep and whom to cut?
AF: It’s always a difficult decision and we have to make a judgement call. Just because someone get cut at a certain age from our Academy doesn’t mean that player can’t go on to make a living as a professional footballer. For example, David Nugent was in the Academy but he got cut. Now, he’s playing for Portsmouth (a Premiership team).

Red Sports: Singapore’s National Football coach was Barry Whitbread and his son Zak Whitbread went to Liverpool Football Academy. Where is he playing now?
MA: Yes, Zak came through the Academy and he is now a footballer at Millwall.

Editor’s note: More action shots in the Picture Gallery.

Hong Kong Stadium is a beautiful stadium made for one purpose – to let 40,000 spectators get as close as possible to the action on the field of play. © Leslie Tan/Red Sports

The crowd at the Hong Kong Stadium taking in the game between Liverpool and Portsmouth. © Leslie Tan/Red Sports

Fulham playing South China at Hong Kong Stadium. © Leslie Tan/Red Sports