February 13th, 2024  The Kickers technical staff travelled to London for 5 days last week, with a specific focus on continued education and studying how two of the best academies in the world train their youth team players, to help develop our coaches and players. 

The two academy visits included West Ham United, current U18 youth team champions of England, and Chelsea FC, who currently have the most youth academy graduates playing in the top 4 professional leagues in England. The academies are clearly excelling in developing young players in the men’s game, but also showed great development progress with their girls and women’s development systems. 

With close connections to both clubs, Kickers staff were given personalized tours of the training facilities and were involved in training sessions, interacting with coaches running sessions, along with watching academy league and cup games. 

The Kickers staff were able to connect with some of the best coaches in youth development and gained some valuable insights, from session planning to individual development plans, along with both academy directors sharing the club’s overall principles, methodologies, and goals for their academies. 

The staff also attended three premier league games, furthering their understanding of the connection between the academies and the professional first team.

The staff will now be working to implement many components they observed on the trip, to continue to give our players an unparalleled soccer experience and align our training principles and methodologies with the world’s best. 

The club is very fortunate to have fostered close connections who were extremely welcoming and made the trip a huge success, from the game day tickets to the academy tours. Exciting times ahead!