Pros and cons of the Academy route
COMMENT
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By Heikki Miettinen in Manchester
There is no shortage of willing applicants for the youth academies of European football clubs. It has become quite the fashion for talented, well-trained, and promising Finnish youngsters to grab at the chance when some big-name club calls out their name.
There are two truths associated with Finnish players and with youth academies. For the player, the chance of full-time training and some kind of schooling along with it is a great opportunity. Then again, another truth is that not one player in the Finnish national first-team squad has arrived there via the European academy route.
The players bought up young by the big clubs are rather like scratch-card lottery tickets, in which every 50th ticket wins a prize, if that.
And it is a question of a two-way victory. If the player rises through the ranks to the club’s first-team, he forges for himself a career and financial independence. If the club gets a League player from its academy intake, then he comes to the first-team squad more or less free of charge.
Veteran midfielder Jari Litmanen (who has himself been in the news of late, having just signed to play for Bundesliga side Hansa Rostock) said in a recent newspaper interview that he recommends young players should mature and hone their skills in the domestic Veikkaus League.
The Finnish FA’s Technical Director Jyrki Heliskoski, who has also coached national youth sides, says he fears that young players get too sidetracked from their schooling at the academies, where lessons are often something of a formality.
In other words, if a career does not open up on the football field, there is no support for an alternative livelihood by way of a general education.
Jami Puustinen from Espoo is one of many young Finnish players testing his wings in England. He has a long road to travel to the Manchester United first-team, but just how many boys would have turned down an invitation such as that?
If Puustinen does not make it to the top, he will at least not have to look back and regret he didn’t even give it a shot.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 29.1.2005
More on this subject:
 Young man seeks position at Old Trafford
WHO? Jami Puustinen
Life in a local family guarantees peace in which to train
HEIKKI MIETTINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
heikki.miettinen@hs.fi
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