Hello again everyone

I am only 15 and next year i will complete my FA 1 badge. Next i will take on the FA2 while at UNi doing a course in sports science with management. I am going to work professionally within football as a coach or wherever. My dream is to a manager of any team in professional football. Starting so young i am confident i can achieve this, especially as football is becoming a more intelligent, prepared game. Highly educated people like Aidy Bothroyd are breaking through. The big question i have though is when do professional clubs start to employ coaches i.e what qualifications to people have who are employed as coaches. I understand experience is needed but as people are now finding out youth and energy can work as effectively. Grateful for any help
MATT

IMO you wont get a pro job until your at least 30 but even i suspect you will struggle! players arent gonna listen to a young kid who couldnt play the game proprtly themselves! Aidy Boothroyd although an intelligent man could also play the game to a good standard and therefore has the respect of the players! how can you teach players to do something you couldnt do yourself?

whats your first job gonna be? who will employ someone who never played or coached?

do you want to coach or manage? do you know the difference between the two roles?

In fact i have played football at a county level for the last 4 years-the same level that aidy played at before being signed and suffering his injury. i am currently completing world challenge, an award reconised for leadership. If you think that you must have played pro your wrong. To say that i may have to wait to 30 to get a pro job may be right. But i am going to Loughbourgh, the most highly reconised sporting school in the country. Playing for their 1st team will be a higher level than aidy. And of course i know the difference between coaching and managing. And i will go on to complete the uefa badges and perhaps other courses. Like Marlon king said on aidy bothroyd 'he joins in at training but hes rubbish',. Management like Tony Mobray said is about Making lots of decisions and getting them right, from the smallest things to the biggest. Its about knowing who your working with and how to motivate them and get the best out of them. Like i said football is changing, education is becoming more important, look at wenger. I will look to get a job in coaching first and learn then from a pro manager. Then when i am ready look to get a pro manager job in the lower leagues. As long as i am working in pro football i will be happy.

I too played county standard and am still playing now as Semi-Pro!

Some may view this as some achievement but almost all players at my level represented district and county sides, I just think it's pretty naive to think that you are the next Aidy Williams just because he was an average player and a good manager does not mean you are the same! Also as a 15yr old you are not at Loughbrough University yet, its not easy to gain entry to and even if you het in your not guaranteed a place in their first team! Also UEFA badges cost money, take ages to complete and are actually very difficult to pass! Its not as simple as just 'doing' them! You are talking thousand of pounds to complete UEFA 'A' and 'B' and its not guaranteed you will pass first time! By all means you seem very ambitious and have this great dream im just giving you a reality check!

Also as a 15yr old you shouldn't be too quick to tell me that i'm wrong, football may be changing slightly but in my experience coaches that have a good playing CV will be employed over a coach with a bit of paper and a badge or two! Im only currently a Level 2 coach working for Aston Villa FC and my interview consisted of me talking about my time playing in the academy at Leicester and playing semi-pro rather than my coaching experience. Good luck to you anyway!

i have to agree, your still a bit young, but at the minute, your still dreaming. you have no coaching experience and probably know very little about the coaching process. if you want to be a coach, go for it, apply for jobs with some soccer schools at grass roots once you get your level 1, theres no need to rush into your level 2.

I'm almost 19 and I'm studying an NVQ Level 2 at the minute and I have a similar ambition in life, but I know its just a dream. If you think you have what it takes, dont just participate in training sessions, go home and think about them thoroughly. Think about why your coach did them, how it can help you personally as a player and how it could have been made better because you have the best perception as a player. Take it slowly, you wont be able to go to uni get a degree and walk into a professional club, you'll need to work hard and understand more than just the game.

Once you do get into coaching, watch other coaches, listen to them, ask them for some tips too, they will help you alot when your on the field. Aidy Boothroyd may be a manager at a pro club but hasnt got much professional football experience, but hes a great coach and has taken time to think about everything and improve all he has seen and developed his own style of coaching, that doesnt mean we all can do the same, but it does mean there are opportunities. Your still young even if you start and decide against it as a career, there are alot of other jobs in sport to look at.

thanks for the great help and i fully agree. I am just desperate to get into pro football. Do you still think that it is a realistic ambition.

honestly though it is management that i really want to do. i always see coaching as a nessicary. It is only really the pro management that appeals to me.

WBA, read what cshpiley wrote in detail and make sure you understand it because thats how it is im affraid mate

cshipley, hope you dont mind me asking but what do you do for villa e.g what coaching do you do. i understand now that i was being naive. i just want to know what qualifications you need for a club like villa to employ you. I am desperate to succeed in football.

I coach for the Aston Villa FC academy. I currently oversee the U11 boys side.

I currently hold the Level 2 but am part of the way through my Level 3. Professional clubs will employ you if you hold a Level2 as long as you can back it up with relevant experience and knowledge.

My advice:
Find a local kids team (preferably Charter Standard) in your area and offer your services (junior teams always need more help!). It may only be assisting the U8's B Team but it is still experience learngin from the coach. If you help out long enough no doubt they will ask you to coach a young team and will pay for you to take your FA Level 1. The Level 1 is ridiculously easy and to this day I have never known anyone to fail it! After a few years experience with your team you will probably be ready to take your Level 2, hopefully the club will send you on this course!

The key is to get involved with a club because they will pay your course fee as having qualified coaches benefits them! My Level 3 costs around £1000 but the club have paid it! Hope this helps!

Good Luck!

Cshipley is dead right.

I myself am a full time coach, and havent played at a pro level or semi pro level yet I was the youngest manager of a semi pro team in England at my first job, and gaining respect was hard due to my age and not playing. Find yourself a local club and learn, don't rush yourself. Also, dreaming of management is all well and good, but unless you've played at a good level e.g Roy Keane and Sunderland you won't get management jobs before coaching, and coaching at a high level...you've got to remember that in leagues like the Isthmian and Northern Premier, most managers have got UEFA "B"'s and more, and thats still a few divisions below football league!

Good luck anyway, if you want any advice at all give me a PM and I'll see if I can help.

Also, Aidy Boothroyd was a professional footballer!

To be honest, the best thing you could do, is to pass your level 1, enrol on your level 2 and contact a club about doing football in the community work there. At the same time as this try to get involved with coaching a sunday league team, or a local semi pro youth team. When you get your level 2 go back to the league club your coaching for and ask to be involved with the academy, either as a volunteer or a helper/assistant to one of the academy coaches. Then its up to how much you can learn from these people and the chances will come along. I've not played at any level other than sunday football, I'm a level 3 coach, working at a premiershiop academy,and i'm only 25 myself. I've worked for and with ex england coaches amongst others, and you can really learn a lot just by working with and listening to those guys. As for the sports science degree, I too do that course at university, ad was told that it would open up so many doors to me in sport. They lied, all i could get was a series of office jobs. To get into football coaching, you need experience and your badges, UNI WONT HELP YOU

andypat - how did you get involved with the premiership club and at what level. im doing my level 3 in July, and once passed that will look to take up a full time coaching job - is it best just to write off to see what comes back??

wba, you sound just like me a few years ago. Im now 17, and doing A Levels at school and doing coaching outside school. You need to take things SLOWLY! to say your going to get into Loughborough is a very long shot! and your only 15 at the moment! why the hell are you thinking about university and pro coaching at the age of 30? thats 15 years away! think about next month, and maybe next year. dont think 3 or 4 years into the future, because you dont know what might happen! who's to say loughborough uni wont burn down in a mass fire? who's to say you might be forced to move away from where you are living now? that could change everything! anything could happen, so dont look to far into the future. focus on the here and now, get your level 1, relax, get your level 2, relax and just coach! sort yourself out for now, not for 10 years down the line