In an effort to give athletes turned down by academies the opportunity to play and learn in the US, Ollie Shannon and Vertex Soccer collaborate.
It all comes down to one final choice for young football players who have occasionally committed over ten years of their lives to playing in professional clubs’ youth structure.
It’s quite difficult to go up the age ranks year after year, and your chances of becoming a professional football player are never in your favor.
Five-year-old Ollie Shannon was a gifted player when he joined Everton. He would spend the following thirteen years with the Toffees, picking up skills in football and reducing the distance between him and the goal of representing the team with each passing year.
But as he prepared to hit 18, where the decisions over who goes professional and who doesn’t are made, Shannon had a feeling that he may need to have more time to prepare for the life that came after. He requested to arrive early to make his choice.
Shannon told the ECHO, “I was the only player in my block to have progressed through every age group, but I ultimately didn’t get a pro deal at 18.”
“I was surrounded at the time by a lot of talented players in my position. They were a very strong academy group, with Tom Davies, Ryan Ledson, Liam Walsh, and Kieran Dowell in attendance.
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“I had maximised everything I could out of that environment. I went in early to find out my decision because I didn’t want to wait around for whether it was a no or a yes. At that point, Everton sat me down and said it was a no but offered me the chance to go out on trial, they then asked if had I thought about the possibility of extending my football and academic education in the US.
“I’d still do my A-levels as a scholar at Everton, so at that point, they put me in contact with some universities that they knew, and then I started that process.
“I didn’t even look at going on trial, it just didn’t appeal.
“Eventually, I committed to go to Clemson University, in South Carolina, which is a big university, and very big in American Football.”
The seed about what the potential for a new path had been planted for Shannon, and his four successful years spend at Clemson would provide the springboard for what would become a new path in his career, one that would seek out similar opportunities for talented teens that had been left with the feeling of hopelessness that can come with rejection.
The US path would provide Shannon with the ability to continue his football and get a first-class education at a Division One school. It would also eventually provide him a route to the Major League Soccer.
“I went to Clemson and just had the best four years of my life playing elite sport,” said Shannon.
“In an environment where there are potential NFL and NBA athletes, future PGA Tour golfers and Olympians that share a gym with you, it’s hard not to be inspired to do better. It was such a unique environment, which really appealed to me, and I made sure I made the most of it. I got a business degree, I was captain for two years, and then, lucky enough to be drafted to the MLS after I graduated.”
Shannon was drafted by Atlanta United, a side that was at the time managed by former Barcelona and Argentina coach, and current head coach of Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami, Tata Martino. Newcastle United winger Miguel Almiron was among the teammates of Shannon in that first year.
Shannon wouldn’t feature competitively for the first team, but spent much of that 2018 campaign with Atlanta United’s second string, before being released at the end of the campaign.
What he learned would shape the future of his career off the pitch, one that would impact many young players on it.
“On the football side I probably didn’t get the chances, but I wasn’t anywhere near as good as the players that started in that team,” said Shannon.
“I think I was at an age there where, you know, you kind of realise the level of what it is to be an international footballer.
“I didn’t get another contract with Atlanta and then tried to pursue a few options in America that didn’t pan out.
“I came back to Europe and had multiple trials in Scotland and England, but I just didn’t get anything.
“So, I made the decision rather than going down the leagues that I had my degree and I was going to use it. I’d had my experience in Atlanta as a pro, which was great, and now I was going to pursue something else.
“I’d made a conscious decision to get that degree so that when it eventually happened, I was ready.
“I stepped into the commercial side of sport a lot earlier than probably what I wanted to. But I was obviously prepared to do it.”
Shannon went full circle. He arrived back at Everton as a member of the club’s commercial department at a time when they were starting to pursue opportunities in the US more aggressively, something that was very much part of Shannon’s wheelhouse, with part of his remit to help organise pre-season tours.
Eighteen months ago a good friend of Shannon’s, Sam Craven, reached out with an opportunity that felt too good for him to pass up, heading up the scholarships at Craven’s company, Vertex Soccer.
Nottingham-born Craven, who now resides in Miami, had a similar back story to Shannon.
A youth team graduate at Notts County until 2007, Craven decided to take the opportunity to chase the American dream by attending Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, where he would play for the university’s team, the Fighting Knights. He would later transfer to the University of Buffalo prior to his senior year in 2010.
After college he played in the USL, the professional US league that sits under the MLS, turning out for the Long Island Rough Riders and FC New York, before he headed home for brief stints in the lower echelons of English football with Mansfield Town, Boston United, and Hednesdford Town.
Seeing a gap in the market to help players continue to pursue their goals in the US after the disappointment of not being offered a pro deal in the UK, Craven created Vertex Soccer, using his knowledge of the collegiate system in the US, and vast contacts built up, to help UK clubs bridge the gap and offer alternatives to their players.
“Players would ask me ‘How do I get out to America’,” said Craven.
“So one favour turned into two, which turned into a business, basically. The company was established with the sole intention of giving lads like myself or any other player released from professional club, the opportunity to learn.
“Every single player that we’ve facilitated that plays over in an American university has completed a youth team scholarship or a first or second-year professional contract at a professional club in the UK.
“After doing that for four or five years, a lot of the top Division one schools started reaching out saying ‘listen, we get to go on an initiative every four years, we know your connections with the football clubs, and your relationships with the academies, could you maybe size up a few games while we’re over?’.
“A light bulb goes off and you say, ‘This would be unbelievable’.”
Since its creation, Vertex has placed more than 450 players from academies into the US collegiate system. Some of those players have gone on to be selected in the MLS draft and continued their football journey, while others have utilised the education in order to further their careers, including on Wall Street, New York.
Placing these players on the other side of the pond carries a heavy responsibility of care.
For a period of three years after a player’s release, Premier League teams are obliged to be aware of what the players are doing. They can access that information through player progress reports when using Vertex to place players in the US.
For Sam and Ollie at Vertex, recruiting players and pitching the idea of a fresh start overseas necessitates the support of not just the players but also the families who seek assurance that their loved ones would be taken care of. That’s where the trust that’s developed over several meetings and ongoing communication comes in handy.
Ultimately, when we talk to the parents of these 18 and 19-year-olds, we’re asking them to ship their most valuable item all the way to America in the hopes that their children would fall in love and settle there.
Because of our great level of trust, we want players to know that they can turn to their manager or coach inside their system for assistance if they are having issues, and that we are always available to them.
Since that’s not always the player’s favorite position at age 18, we need to know which system best fits the player we are working with. Sometimes, a person’s best position and their favorite position are not the same thing.
However, we want to make sure that we’re placing them in the best system possible and that we monitor their development and success year after year.
The academics come in second. We never assign a player to attend a university that does not grant them the degree they choose to pursue. We must therefore find colleges that offer that degree if a player approaches us and is determined to study sports management because, for example, they plan to become an agent after playing. If the academic side of things isn’t going well, it can ruin the player’s life because they have to be excellent all around for the full four years. The experience is more pleasurable if they find the studies enjoyable.
The third is the place. That is a significant one. Well, I’ll joke and laugh about it because many of them are unaware that snow actually falls in New York. Many people first declare their desire to visit New York, but they later change their minds after learning that the city receives two or three feet of snow for several weeks of the year.
However, the most important thing is to make sure kids are having fun in the new place. Even on the West Coast, there is a nine-hour time difference, which might make it challenging to get in touch with loved ones back home.
The individual and getting to know them while establishing ties with them and their families make up the fourth. The largest one is that one.
Shannon, 28, continues to play football with Bala Town, a semi-professional team in the top division of Welsh football, the Cyrmu Premier Division.
Yet, the real motivation comes from assisting the “broken souls” who graduate from academies year after year, even as you continue to play football for the love of the game and to satisfy your football itch.
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