Initially, the programme will focus on education and career prospects. This week, Alexander-Arnold launches a new initiative, the After Academy, which he’s hoping will grow into a much-needed space to support let-go young players. Into the red: playing for Liverpool academy in the 2007/08 season. What would have happened if it hadn’t worked out for me?” But I played with hundreds of kids growing up. “There were players who were faster and stronger than me who didn’t make it,” Alexander-Arnold tells. Around 3,500 boys are currently signed to Premier League academies, but over 99% of children signed to an academy aged nine won’t have a professional footballing career. Professional clubs scout young players and help them develop towards the adult game. Across the country, around 12,000 boys aged eight and up are enrolled in these training schemes (boys and girls can start training with clubs from as young as five years old). Like the vast majority of top-flight professional players in the UK and beyond, Alexander-Arnold came up through a football academy. And for the past few years, that fact has been troubling him. I got here through hard work and discipline.” At 24, he has already banked a lifetime of financial and vocational achievements. “I’m a success story,” he says, in a soft scouse accent, not boastful. He’s about to recount memories of extreme pressure and major sacrifice. T rent Alexander-Arnold wants to make clear he has absolutely no regrets about his path to the Premier League.
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