I’ve always been passionate about nurturing talent through education and training: it’s what I love most about my work. Lately, I’ve been exploring football from a pedagogical angle, fascinated by how this collaborative sport, when properly coached from age six onwards (some clubs start training toddlers as early as 3 years old), develops not just athletic skills but crucial competencies that translate later directly to the business world. This has led me to examine existing training facilities (mostly due geographical reasons I will focus on Portugal) and their training methodologies.

This is the first part of a series of articles that I am going to write about football in lenses narrowed on academies. But before delving into that, let us first analyse the key clubs that have been elaborating these programmes since very early on.

Major clubs and Facilities

Portugal’s three major football clubs have established world-class training facilities that serve as blueprints for comprehensive youth development. Sporting CP led this transformation with their Academy’s inauguration in June 2002, creating Portugal’s first reference sports complex across 250,000 square meters. Just months later, FC Porto followed suit with the PortoGaia Training and Sports Development Center in August 2002, focusing on modern infrastructure to develop young talents while ensuring sustainable pathways to the first team. Benfica completed this triumvirate of excellence with their Campus launch in September 2006, positioning it as a center of excellence that goes beyond athletic development.

The three academies share a common philosophy: integrating sporting preparation with academic and social development to produce not just elite athletes, but well-rounded individuals who embody their clubs’ values. This holistic approach reflects the pedagogical potential of football training, where technical skills development occurs alongside character building and life competencies that extend far beyond the pitch. In Portugal, beyond the major centers of Sporting, Benfica, and FC Porto, the academies of Vitória SC and Académica also stand out.

All of the aforementioned projects emerged primarily from the 2000s onwards, driven by the need for financial sustainability, valorization of national talent, and compliance with UEFA regulations regarding locally-trained players. Thereby, investment in youth development became a strategic response to economic circumstances and the need to strengthen club identity, and is today one of the pillars of Portuguese football.

Youth Development

It’s safe to say that while most of the strategic motifs centered on the creation of the aforementioned training centers revolve around youth development, the most compelling and consistent driving force is the need for financial sustainability and compliance with UEFA regulations regarding locally-trained players. Sustainability as it provides revenue streams by training potentially highly performant athletes.

But, if we put that aside for now, a careful analysis reveals distinct operating philosophical differences in how each of the three major clubs implements their development programmes, warranting a closer examination of the structural and philosophical variations that define their respective approaches.

Structural and Philosophical differences

From the early beginnings, Sporting and Benfica academies reveal distinct but complementary approaches to football development. Sporting has privileged from the beginning a centralized excellence model with expansion through partnerships, while Benfica developed a hybrid strategy that combines centralization at Seixal with territorial decentralization through the Training and Development Centers (TDCs). This difference reflects distinct organizational philosophies: Sporting focuses on replicating its excellence model through formative franchising, while Benfica seeks to directly control the entire development process from initial identification to advanced training.

The temporal aspect is also relevant: inaugurated four years before the Benfica Campus, the now Cristiano Ronaldo Academy benefited from a temporal competitive advantage that allowed it to establish itself as a reference and attract talents. Benfica responded with a more sophisticated territorial recruitment strategy, recognizing that a differentiating model would be necessary to compete effectively with Sporting’s pioneering approach.

In summary, with operational strategy differences either through franchising or by direct control of the entire development process, Sporting CP, SL Benfica and FC Porto (through “Dragon Force”) as well as Vitoria currently operate with a dual paradigm: (1) a central hub where elite athletes live, study and train at the highest level; (2) a decentralized network of satellite centers or partnerships that covers the territory to detect, train and feed the hub with talents already identified and methodologically aligned.

Beyond the Love for the Club

The point mentioned above is fairly more relevant if local (e.g., satellite/partnerships) youth development programs at the big three clubs follow a standardized approach to training practices. All of them require their trainers to hold at least the Coach Level 1 (UEFA C) certification, known as “roots,” which serves as the entry-level qualification for junior football programs. These accreditations are typically issued by certified centers and all follow the key principles of football hierarchy found in standard sports textbooks.1 This uniformization and centralization of coach training at regional centers creates a dangerous saturation of conventional training methods. The consequence is alarming: this standardized approach threatens to produce an entire generation of homogeneous athletes, systematically crushing individual creativity and flair at the most crucial developmental stage.

Without diversity in training programs, the dangers of athletic homogenization become inevitable. A decentralized network of satellite centers is therefore crucial: centers that prioritize sport values and develop specialized, personalized training programs from the earliest stages of an athlete’s development point of view. This approach must run parallel with equally diverse coach training, ensuring that mentors themselves possess the varied perspectives and methodologies necessary to nurture unique talent rather than manufacture carbon-copy players.

But, not everything is dark and gloomy. We are starting to witness, in certain key clubs or willingly coaches with a growth mindset out of the big-three, situations where the coach leads the player to discovery, discovering for himself what he should do under the influence of the clues he is receiving from the coach. This is a remarkable feat considering the already proven effects of novel leadership communication styles within organizations.2 Communication, as in other disciplines, do contribute equally to the squad performance that goes beyond tactics and physical training. Coaches who deliver these practices in a holistic view will produce more complete athletes and, ultimately, more resilient professionals as it has been reported in other domains.3

Due to the capital available, if we focus solely on the satellite partnerships/teams of the clubs mentioned in this post, we will realize that greater pressure is placed on player development,4 especially if we do not opt for differentiating models. This becomes even more relevant with the current trend of centralization of training courses where coaches receive a “one-size-fits-all” education.

There are considerable gaps in the training programs I have surveyed. The majority focus on technical components in a standardized way, and few analyze the critical aspects of training junior football teams. This is particularly important since, for young athletes, this may mark the beginning of a professional athletic career or simply playing for enjoyment. Clubs must recognize this dual reality: they should fully enable athletes who are committed purely for the love of the sport, while simultaneously providing clear pathways and mechanisms for those pursuing professional careers. More critically, clubs should prioritize training and development over immediate results, recognizing that true success lies in long-term growth rather than short-term victories. This requires continuous investment not only in athlete development but also in comprehensive coach education across multiple domains – spanning tactics, physical preparation, nutrition, communication, and psychology in group environments – ensuring that mentors at all levels possess the diverse skills necessary to nurture both future professionals and lifelong enthusiasts.

As many local teams adhere to partnership programs, training becomes increasingly paramount. If not addressed properly, the lack of proper training programs will lead to catastrophic failure in the next generation, which ultimately follows the Peter Principle,5 where individuals will eventually reach a peak of incompetence due to the lack of foundational skills and comprehensive development during their formative years.

Further Reading

  1. Martins, Filipe José Lourenço. Funcionamento e gestão de uma academia de futebol: estudo de caso da academia do FC Porto. MS thesis. Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal), 2015. ↩︎

  2. Marquet, L. David. Turn the ship around!: A true story of building leaders by breaking the rules. Penguin Books Limited, 2015. ↩︎

  3. Epstein, David. Range: Why generalists triumph in a specialized world. Penguin, 2021. ↩︎

  4. The Evolution of Football Academies and Schools in Europe, from Oviedo City Soccer Academy, Nov 25, 2024 ↩︎

  5. Peter, Laurence J., and Raymond Hull. The peter principle. Vol. 4. London: Souvenir Press, 1969. ↩︎