‘Today is your opportunity’: Behind the scenes at a Premier League academy

“It is lunchtime, Newcastle United’s academy is a hubbub of people and Steve Harper is conducting an impromptu tour, slap-bang in his element. The club’s former goalkeeper, its longest-serving player and now the academy manager knows everybody and their backstories. There is encouragement, feedback, a steady stream of dad jokes. … What they do is produce footballers for Newcastle — the primary objective — and along one internal wall there is a mural of academy graduates who made their way into the first team. Sean Longstaff is open-jawed after scoring, Andy Carroll is in an England shirt, arms outstretched, Elliot Anderson is there. But what they do is way more than football. But what they do is way more than football. …”
NY Times/The Athletic