...And a dream prize too, for the Soccer Prince runner up
There can only be one Soccer Prince winner.
But there will also be a lucky runner up. And the prize on offer will also take them to a top English soccer club to train like a professional for a year.
The Soccer Prince runner up will be flown to England and head to Sheffield United’s youth soccer academy.
Sheffield United, known as ‘The Blades’ because of the city’s fame for steel production, especially for knives, now play in the Championship league.
Our lucky runner up Soccer Prince will get to train and learn top professional skills with the other hand-picked members of the club’s soccer academy.
A great prize for an exceptional soccer talent.
The Sheffield United soccer academy is headed by the club’s Performance Manager, Dead Riddle.
Dean, from New Zealand, is responsible for many aspects of the players' performance, including nutrition, strength conditioning and fitness. Dean runs a specially designed programme based, not only on football, but on many sports, including cricket and rugby.
The Soccer Prince runner up can expect to be helped to reach his optimum level of fitness and skill over the course of the year with the Young Blades. A packed and exciting programme awaits, all conducted by top professionals and overseen by Dean.
The activities are specially designed to accelerate the development of young players, Dean says.
“We make sure we cover all aspects of a footballer’s development. We monitor each player individually and we use the world’s best practice from many sports – cricket, rugby, athletics, swimming, tennis, baseball and even Australian Rules Football.”
Each of the young players is profiled and a special development plan is worked out for them to follow, right down to what they should eat and with specific goals for them to achieve over the course of the year.
“We aim to turn out good footballers and good people,” says Dean.
So, what can the Soccer Prince runner up expect from a typical day at the academy.
Each days starts at 8.30am at the training ground where the Soccer Prince will have breakfast with the other members of the Young Blades. After a briefing, there will perhaps be strength conditioning, followed by jobs around the ground. Then there will be a field session at 10.30am where soccer skills are practised. The focus of these sessions will be based on the needs of the individual young players. This will last for an hour to an hour and a half. Following that there will be lunch, all specially prepared and designed by a nutrition expert.
Then there will be more strength conditioning, probably in the well-equipped gym. After that there will be more skills work in the arena, with the club’s skills’ coach. And there’ll be more academy work in the evening.
The Soccer Prince will also have a full education programme and Dean insists language will not be a problem.
“The language of soccer is pretty universal,” says Dean. “Everyone quickly understands ‘pass the ball!’ But, even so, we have a lot of experience here of helping boys who don’t speak the language straight away. We’ve had many foreigners here. Recently we had a Korean lad who stayed for a year and a Spanish boy who spoke no English at all when he arrived. By the time he left he was fluent. It won’t be a problem. And, of course, we will organise special lessons.”
Dean stresses that the year is not only about learning soccer skills, it’s also about developing as a person and having a great time.
“Not everyone can make it as a professional footballer. But, people who come here can be certain that they will have a terrific year. That’s for sure.”
