Dons announce official partnership with Southfields Academy to develop stars of the future

AFC Wimbledon have officially launched a partnership with Southfields Academy that could develop potential stars of the future.

Dons chief executive Erik Samuelson said: “We have been working together for some time now with Southfields Academy and this is the next exciting development.

Erik Samuelson with Southfields Academy head teacher Jacqueline Valin

“Scholars from our club will be doing a BTEC as part of their education and obviously learning football skills. This is what modern football clubs do and we are doing it too.

“Even though I think we are better than many clubs at it, there are a significant number of boys who are not going to make it to the first-team and we have to make sure they are adequately educated. They have to be taught values and brought up in the right environment so that when they move on they are better fitted for the world.

“That’s an important part of our role and the academy team, led by Jeremy Sauer, are excellent at it.

“I lived about half a mile from here for ages and I never realised what a phenomenal place it is. It has great facilities. We’ve had a good month with the launch of this partnership and the Secretary of State making the right decision about the new stadium.”

Sauer said: “This is a club-wide launch, which focuses on providing good educational opportunities for our young footballers. We are always examining how we can move forward as an academy. If you have a pot of money, it is quite easy, but we don’t. We’ve therefore tried to be creative and looked at how we can get marginal gains in terms of what we do.

“We’ve looked at sports science and our football coaching, but this obviously focuses on education, and we’ve looked at how we can improve that. Southfields is on the doorstep of Plough Lane and with the great facilities it has got and the duty of care its staff show to our players, this is a big step forward.”

Dons chief executive Erik Samuelson, AFC Wimbledon foundation director Kay Skelton and academy manager Jeremy Sauer joined Southfields Academy head teacher Jacqueline Valin all attended the launch event.