Academy players raise the bar in Olympics-style tournament

The competitive flame is burning bright among our Academy players, who have been taking part in a modified Olympics-style tournament at home under the watchful eye of Sally Gunnell OBE.

The legendary track and field athlete, an Olympic gold medal winner in the 400-metre hurdles, hosted the week-long competition with a series of videos addressing our Under-23 and Under-18 players over WhatsApp as they competed against each other in various sporting challenges, all while working individually at home during lockdown.

With one technical and one physical challenge taking place each day, numerous ball control exercises, middle-distance running, short sprints and press-ups were among the disciplines on the agenda – all within government guidelines during this period of social shutdown – with each player recording their scores via their mobile phones and submitting them to our coaching and sports science staff, who compiled the rankings in both individual and small-sided team categories, with separate competitions run for each age bracket.

In the end, attacking midfielder Dilan Markanday topped the individual standings and won gold in the Under-23 section, closely followed by Phoenix Patterson collecting silver and Jamie Bowden claiming bronze. Striker Kion Etete leapt to the top of the Under-18 standings on the last day to win gold in his category, with Chay Cooper earning silver and Rafferty Pedder collecting bronze.

“It was a really good competition and gave us even more motivation to keep training hard,” said Dilan. “Things like this really keep our levels high in terms of competitiveness because we all know that we have to remain ready and sharp. I’m really happy to win it against some very competitive and talented boys in my age category – it feels great to come out as best of the bunch but I’m making sure this is just the start.”

Under-18 winner Kion added: “Everyone was desperate to win so it was very difficult! Everyone was trying their best and I think that shows how much hard work it took to win. I knew I was going to have to go all out on the last day but it’s the same for all of us – it’s about that determination to win, just like when we’re playing football matches. You always want to do the best you possibly can.”

All players who finished above a designated qualification cut-off position in each category have advanced to a ‘champions’ tournament taking place this week, with the group stages now complete and knockout rounds taking place from today (Wednesday).

Defoe shares his wisdom

Away from their physical exercises, our Academy players have recently benefitted from a number of live online video Q&A sessions with top sporting stars, including our legendary former striker and current Rangers marksman, Jermain Defoe.

“The Q&A with Jermain and his story was both inspirational and inspiring for our young players and we really appreciate him spending some time with us,” said Academy Manager Dean Rastrick. “JD spoke about the requirements and dedication needed to have a career at the top level and about his obsession, drive and determination to be the best striker in the Premier League. Hopefully our young players will take his messages on board and follow in his footsteps.”

As a young striker himself, Kion explained how he and his team-mates felt privileged to learn from one of our modern-day greats: “Jermain gave us some incredible insight into his career and spoke about motivation as well,” said the 18-year-old. “It was great and I was able to absorb a lot of points that he made. He spoke about maintaining that winning mentality in training as well as in games and explained to us how in every shooting session when he’s training, he feels he has to score every goal and settles for nothing less – that’s obviously a massive help when it comes to playing games and a brilliant example for us as young players to try to follow.”