The brand new Bristol City post-16 shadow squad has been created to give talented players in the Bristol area the opportunity to participate in a full-time football programme while receiving a first-class education. 

The new shadow squad will run in parallel with Bristol City’s highly successful Academy for talented 16-18 year olds. Training will be delivered by experienced coaches who have played the game professionally and sessions will be delivered in line with the Bristol City playing philosophy.

The small squad of selected players will form the tier below the Academy and participate in the National Football Youth League (NFYL) which is considered the best level of football outside of the professional academies games programme. Home games will be played at the state of the art Robins High Performance Centre on a Wednesday afternoon. Games will also be played against the Bristol City Academy and other professional academies across the country.

Alongside the football element, players will study a BTEC Level 3 National Diploma in Sports Coaching and Development. This two year course will help players develop their coaching skills so that they can progress as independent coaches and take up part-time coaching positions with programme partners, the Robins Foundation and Bristol Inner City Academy.

The shadow squad has been created to give boys who are at a sufficiently high level and may even have just missed out on gaining a scholarship at a professional club, the best opportunity of another chance to make it in the professional game. Nonetheless, we have to realise that making it as a professional player is extremely difficult and opportunities are very limited and so we have spent a lot of time creating genuinely relevant exit routes to universities both in the UK and the US, workplace apprenticeships and other employment pathways within the sports industry.

This programme comes with no guarantees or false promises: we are looking for boys currently in year 11 who believe they can excel in this newly formed elite training programme and make the most of the opportunities which it will offer.

Numbers are limited and we expect the demand to be very high, so if you believe you could be the type of player we are looking for, please complete the online form below to find out more about our trial sessions which will start in early 2022.

If you need more information please email academy@volenti.co.uk or contact us via WhatsApp.

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