An Exciting Season Ahead After Record Breaking Year Last Season- Read More

As the new Academy season kicks off it’s the perfect opportunity to reflect upon just what a fantastic season we had last year across the Academy programme, with a record number of Premier League Academy player progressions into both AFC Bournemouth Academy, Southampton FC Academy as well as our first ever England international call up for the New Forest Football Academy. Last season alone we saw over 45 of our players progressing into Premier League ID Centres and Development Centres and a further 8 players signing full Academy contracts with Premier League Clubs.

It was an excellent season for our Pre-Academy phase, as several players have progressed into Academy set-ups. Congratulations to Toby, James and Scott who have all signed for the AFC Bournemouth Pre-Academy following successful trial periods. It was fantastic to see them all perform so well in the Summer Premier League pre-season festival between AFC Bournemouth Academy, Wolverhampton Wanderers Academy and New Forest Football Academy in August. Well done to Riley and Jack who also have been training with both AFC Bournemouth and Southampton FC Pre-Academy during the season, as well as Elliott and Thomas who have recently started training with AFC Bournemouth Talent ID centre.

Well done to Alfie from the U8 age group who has now signed with Southampton FC Academy in the U9 age group. Alfie has always been a very technically gifted player and his hard work and effort has paid off with his progression into Southampton FC Academy. We look forward to hearing about Alfie’s progress over the coming season.

Great news for Kai from our Hythe centre who signed with Southampton FC Academy. Coach Jesse said it was a real pleasure working with Kai and also paid credit to his grassroots coaches at Hythe & Dibden Youth FC in developing Kai into such a talented player.

More great news with Brodie signing a one year contract with the AFC Bournemouth U9 Academy and he is performing exceptionally well. Brodie has always been an exceptionally talented player, but it’s been his real hard work and dedication to his training that has allowed Brodie to take the next steps into performing so well for a Premier League Academy. Feedback from the Academy Manager at AFC Bournemouth has been exceptional, well done Brodie!

Amazing news for Dream, who was previously with our U12 Academy age group and has now received her first call up to train with the U13 England training Camp. It’s no surprise to Coach Hugh, who worked with Dream throughout her time in the Academy. All the Academy Coaches and players she played alongside always knew just what an incredible talent we had in our ranks and it was only a matter of time until international honors soon followed. Congratulations Dream, everyone within the Academy looks forward to seeing your progress over the months and season ahead.

Well done to Ethan that moves into the U12 Academy age group at AFC Bournemouth following a highly successful season with the U11 age group, regularly playing up an age group. Ethan has been playing both as a striker and a number 10 and has become a influential member of the AFC Bournemouth U12 age group. Feedback from the AFC Bournemouth Academy Coaching team has been superb.

Congratulations to former New Forest Academy player Harry who now progresses into AFC Bournemouth U15 Academy with some very professional performances and fantastic feedback from the AFC Bournemouth Coaching staff. Harry continues to impress, regularly playing in the age group above for AFC Bournemouth, demonstrating just what a real talent he is. The coming season will be an exciting one for Harry as he hopes to continue to impress. It’s also been great having Harry working with Coach Hugh and Coach Jesse within our Academy Pre-Season training programme, working with our younger New Forest Academy age groups, passing on his skills and experiences.

Massive credit also goes to both Coach Hugh and Coach Jamie who work closely with the Scouting team at AFC Bournemouth and lead the New Forest ID Centre programme, running at Brockenhurst College. This is one of 3 ID regional Centres for AFC Bournemouth, who also runs centres in Havant and Dorchester. Over the past season the New Forest ID Centre was the most successful of all the AFC Bournemouth Centres, with 9 players being offered trials with AFC Bournemouth Academy Shadow squads, including Archie, Lloyd and Hector from our Academy groups. Well done to Archie who has now been offered a place with the AFC Bournemouth U10 Academy Shadow squad.

Also a massive well done goes out to former New Forest Academy player Eddie that has a 6-week trial with AFC Bournemouth Academy U15 as a goalkeeper. Eddie has always been a strong outfield player but it shows that it’s never too late to take up a new position in football and just how the position of goalkeeper has really changed over recent years, requiring the exceptional skills of top outfield players. We wish Eddie the best of luck with his upcoming 2 months trial at AFC Bournemouth Academy.

Within the Academy congratulations to Jack and Will that are progressing from our Christchurch Academy group into the New Forest Academy High Performance U10 age group. We are also very excited to be working with our new U6 High Performance group that have started training this term.

We’re looking forward the new Academy season ahead and working with our players’ grass-roots coaches to maximise their footballing development. Our High Performance groups will now be playing competitive football within the Wechsel High Performance League, taking place every other Saturday and our Academy age groups will continue to play in fixtures across the season, giving players a fantastic opportunity to apply their learning from training. As ever, player review meetings with your child’s Academy Coach are available throughout the season. Simply contact your child’s Academy Coach to schedule an appointment. We’ll also keep you updated with Academy news throughout the season ahead.