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Youth football expert details next steps for London-based Kinetic Academy
We’re delighted to welcome the founder of Kinetic Academy Harry Hudson as our exclusive columnist. Each week the youth football expert will be giving his views on the biggest talking points on wonderkids across the UK…
Harry Hudson has seen the Kinetic Academy flourish into a haven for youth football in London but there are still big plans ahead.
The former Glebe FC manager created the foundation in 2011 to provide opportunities for young people in South London to chase their footballing dream while being safe in the knowledge that they have a backup plan to resort to if they don’t make it.
Plenty do though with 60 players going on to earn professional contracts with Joe Aribo and Omar Richards recently making the big move to the Premier League having started with Kinetic.
But despite these sensational numbers, Hudson wants more to come from his charity and his plans for the immediate future are very exciting indeed.
“The next step for us is to develop women’s football,” Hudson exclusively told The Football Wonderkids. “The year after we are looking to expand both programmes that little bit more.
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“But after that, I don’t know. We’re asking ourselves ‘do we get nationwide?’ ‘do we go into other sports in London?’
“I’d love to start our own free school for 16–19-year-olds to get school opportunities which is slightly different to how education is done now.
“I think there are a few key things that young people can benefit from having different approaches to certain things so we have some ideas there.
“Most of all though we want to have our own facility because a lot of our funding at the moment goes on hiring pitches and facilities.
“I don’t think we’ll get anywhere near being worldwide though unfortunately but there is definitely potential to expand into other areas of the UK.”
This is the perfect year to be pushing women’s football too with the European Championships taking place here in England with Sabrina Weigman’s Lionesses one of the favourites to lift the trophy.
In other Kinetic Academy news, Hudson gave us the lowdown on QPR’s latest “super” signing.