From National League to the Premier League How do you do it?

Jack Metcalfe

The National League is the base of the English football pyramid. Professional English football players would not be where they are without grassroots clubs and National League clubs. That is how it is, how it has been and that is how it will be in the future. But the odds of reaching the top of the game are so slim and only an extremely talented handful of players will ever get to an academy let alone go pro. But incredible stories do come out about players playing at the top that came from the bottom.

Marcus Rashford is just one of countless examples of players coming into football using their local non-league club. Rashford began his footballing career at age five where he played for Fletcher Moss Rangers. He played there for two years before being scouted for Manchester United where he now scores goals in the Premier League, Champions League and now World Cup. This is similar to what any English pro would say when they are asked about the foundations of their footballing career.

An older example of this and the main name you think of when talking about a rags to riches football story is the one of Jamie Vardy. At age 16 he was released from Sheffield Wednesday, the club he had played for for the majority of his life. It is fair to say this would crush anyone but not Jamie Vardy. After joining a few clubs he made his senior debut with Stocksbridge Park Steels. He played football alongside working 12 hour shifts at a factory. After scoring 66 goals for the club he started moving up and joined Non League side Halifax Town. He continued to score goals and then caught the eye of Fleetwood Town and again scored lots of goals. Finally in 2012 Leicester City picked the striker up. Since then it has been nothing but glory as since then, they got to the Premier League, escaped relegation and then in 2016 they won the Premier League in one of the biggest upsets in sports history and Jamie Vardy was at the heart of it. This just shows the importance of grassroots and Nation League clubs.

We spoke to Eastbourne Borough manager Danny Bloor about how players can progress through the leagues and what happens when they do.

When asked the main way that players progress through the club to go to a higher level he said: “There are two main ways. One would be that the player is scouted and another way is that they could be recommended to clubs at a higher level.” He was also asked what the club can do to help the player when they are scouted, he said: “You can’t really it's down to the player. There is footage now so it's always there for other clubs to use.” When asked about players coming through at Eastbourne Borough he said: “We had a goalkeeper called Franco Ravizzoli who we sold to MK Dons and he is now in the MK Dons first team.”

Every English player you see play at the highest level has gone through a National League club or a grassroots club at some point in their career and it is something that we will see in the English game forever.