Are you a budding footballing star wondering how to get a football scholarship, either in the US or somewhere else?
Some of the best football scholarships don’t just demand a superior level of ability on the pitch. Football scholarship requirements also extend to your academic level, as well as your language skills.
The pathway to getting a football scholarship depends on a number of factors, including the country you want to apply to, and whether or not the football scholarship is at a college/university, or directly with a football club.
But there are some core elements you need to consider:
Your football coaches will have an insight into how you can progress your career and will be able to lay out some options for you, whether that’s applying directly to local clubs to trial for their academies, or different university and college pathways.
If you’re applying for a US-based soccer scholarship, then you need to understand the academic requirements for getting onto a course. Many university and college-based scholarships will require a high level of educational attainment to even apply. In the US, for example, you may be required to complete four years of English, three years of math, two years and natural sciences and other classes too. Check the NCAA website if this is the pathway you’d like to pursue.
Just because your first applications or trials may be unsuccessful, doesn’t mean your dream of becoming a professional football player is over.
Keep honing your skills on and off the pitch, and the right opportunities will come to you. Many of the world’s top players today were missed by youth scouts or released by Premier League clubs and had to work their way up the football pyramid from the very bottom.
If you’re hungry enough to succeed, you can definitely do the same.
There are various types of football scholarships which you can pursue to further your career in football. They include:
College soccer scholarships – these support both your academic and athletic pursuits at the same time within a college or university setting.
Full football scholarships – if you’re a rising superstar in the making, a university may fully cover your lodging and foot costs to get you playing for their teams.
Partial football scholarships – the university will offer to cover a lot of your costs, but not all of them. You will still need to maintain high performance both on the pitch and in the classroom.
Football club scholarships – get scouted, try out for and get signed by real football teams for their academy set-ups.
Whether you’re applying to a university football scholarship, or directly to a football club’s youth academy, they will have a number of requirements before they will consider signing you up – including your language ability.
For international players wanting to join a US college scheme or play directly for a club’s academy in the UK, there are expectations that you will be able to speak Football English to a proficient level. How else will you be able to communicate with coaches, teammates and management?
Students applying to soccer scholarships in the US for example will need to prove their English language proficiency by typically taking a TOEFL or IELTS language test and supplying a score as part of their application documentation. The usual score bar for IELTS is 5.5, and for TOEFL it is 46.
Do you need to better communicate with your teammates, understand your coaches more clearly, and speak to the media with increased confidence?
In a matter of weeks, we help football players and fans to learn the English they need to succeed in the modern game, tutored by one of the UK’s leading English language instructors. It’s a fun and easy way to boost your Football English level.
Test your Football English level and experience a taster of our full course. Great for a top-up of your existing English skills!
A world-class online Football English course. Interactive online sessions with guided learning from language specialists.
Graded readers, language learner notebooks and Word of the Week picture book!
Your questions… answered.
12 weeks. There are 12 units with each unit taking 1 week to complete.
Each week the instructor, Mark, will introduce the tasks that learners need to complete. These will be a variety of activities, including twice weekly LIVE Zoom classes, interactive exercises on our app, using a pen and paper (yes, really!) and reading a best-selling football story.
Learners will complete these tasks by themselves, but they will also be part of a small group of peers (less than 20) who have been admitted by invitation-only. Students will all complete the tasks at the same time and you will be able to share comments, ask each other questions and join football discussions – in English! They will also all be in the same Zoom classes.
The instructor, Mark, will guide students through the whole course. In addition to twice weekly live Zoom classes, he will also post several videos each week explaining the aims of each unit, how to complete each task, and also giving useful study advice.
Professional football players, youth players, soccer coaches, youth academies, football-affiliated organisations…. Anyone who would benefit from learning to communicate better with their teammates, coaches, support staff, and anyone else in a football environment, such as the media.
The self-study kit includes a range of materials to help accelerate student’s learning, including:
Approximately 3-5 hours in total as a minimum. Each task will take between 10-30 minutes to keep it fun and engaging. But in total we expect learners to spend about 2-3 hours per week on self-study, plus 2 x weekly LIVE Zoom classes of 30 minutes. We also encourage students to review their notes and re-do any tasks they found difficult, especially on the mobile app.
