Australia’s 1st FREE Football Academy

Join Euro Football Star’s FREE year-round football academy in Brisbane! 

60 boys. 60 girls. Will YOU be one of them? 

Open to Ages 8-16

Commencing Week 2 of Term 1, 2025

Train 2-4 times a week at our year-round indoor venue in Albion. 

Follow the same academy curriculum followed by English Premier League clubs, set by UEFA-qualified coaches. 

           Year-Round, All-Weather, World-Class Academy Training For FREE.

FIRST TRIALS FOR 2025 ACADEMY INTAKE 8th DECEMBER 2024, 8:30AM-12:30PM, ALBION SPORTS CENTRE

How It Will Work.

  • The EFS Academy is FULLY FUNDED by Euro Football Star. There are no fees. 
  • Places are earned through application, followed by a trial. 
  • There are places available for 60 boys and 60 girls, ages 8-16.
  • U10, U12, U14 and U16 programs.
  • 90 minute sessions, up to 4 times weekly. 
  • Applications are open year-round.
  • Indoor venue in Albion, Brisbane inner north. Albion Sports Centre.
  • Academy training is year-round and runs on QLD school terms (Weeks 2-10)

Email academy@eurofootballstar.com to receive your application form.

Our Expectations.

  • You will attend a minimum of 2 times per week, with 4 sessions on offer.
  • Those who fail to meet minimum attendance will be let go. 
  • Once selected for the EFS Academy program, you are locked in for a year.
  • Each year your contract will be renewed, cancelled, or you will be asked to retrial.
  • We love parents, but we don’t allow parents at training. Let us do our thing! We have a designated area for parents where you can purchase drinks, snacks and watch TV.
  • Take this seriously, and we’ll take you —and your pro football dreams— seriously.

Coaching & Curriculum

EFS Academy is a European-style academy, with training methods used by the English Premier League. This set-up is unlike any other in Australia, with your 90 minutes broken up into a series of 15 minute sessions, and goalkeepers will have their own training program.

Unlike in clubland in Australia, this training runs year-round, breaking only for school holidays. (In Europe, elite football training doesn’t shut down for half the year!)

The EFS Academy curriculum is designed and delivered by Raymond Wood, one of the most highly qualified UEFA coaches in the world and a UEFA player agent. 

Ray has not only worked in the Academy system at clubs like Liverpool FC, PSG and Leicester City, but he worked for the EPL on the 3 billion dollar EPPP project, which was created to fix the lack of homegrown English talent and went on to produce players like Bellingham and Foden. In short, he knows a whole lot about youth development in football.

Raymond will be one of the coaches at the EFS Academy and will be involved in hands-on coaching, backed up by a group of highly vetted, qualified coaches.

Pathways to pro football are our priority, and we are always looking for opportunities for our Academy Players to progress to elite levels both here in Australia and overseas.

RAYMOND
WOOD

RAYMOND
WOOD

Why Are We Doing This?

It comes down to ‘family maths’ — the sums and sacrifices parents make to help their kid get to elite football. As it stands, parents (and doting grandparents!) are paying through the nose for football in Australia.

– In order to make it, a player needs to train 7-9 times a week. 
– Training 7-9 times a week = huge club membership fees + academy fees
– Fees =3- 4K a year! Plus petrol, etc, etc, etc. 

RAYMOND
WOOD

For most parents, no matter how much they love their kid, this cash haemorrhage is unsustainable, particularly if they have more than one child who is good at football!

As a result, talented kids miss out on academy or rep programs. Or parents sacrifice family holidays to make it work, or extend their mortgage. 

This is rubbish. This system is broken.

In the UK, talented players are taken in by the academy system, which is free.

So we thought that it was time to set up a FREE academy ourselves. One that’s modelled on the European style, not only in its fully funded model, but also in its training style and objectives. Because if we want our kids to match it with the best of Europe when it comes to trials— or when they pull on that Young Matildas or Socceroos jersey one day — we need to match their standard with the European standard. And we need to do this right from the get-go. 

And here we are. EFS Academy is a part of the answer to the problems that are holding young Aussie football players back from reaching their potential. 

It’s another piece of the puzzle, along with our flagship Professional Player Pathway Program.

What’s in it for us?

I get it. People are suspicious of free stuff. It’s fair to ask what’s in it for Euro Football Star. And there are a few things that are beneficial to EFS in creating this academy, and we have no issue sharing them.

– It will be great for word of mouth about EFS and help us grow. 
– It’s the missing piece of our business that people keep asking about.
– It lets me, Raymond Wood, get back into the hands-on business of coaching and spotting talent on the pitch.

But most of all, it fits my driving mission to implement change across the football system in Australia as a whole. Because I reckon once I start offering a free football academy…others will follow.
Because if I can afford to set up a free academy, the question has to be this:

Why aren’t your rep clubs that are reaping up to 4 million dollars in fees a year doing the same? Where are their free academies?

That’s the question. They do it that way in England —where the talented players get to play high level football for free through an academy system. It’s a failure of the Australian system, and I want to see it fixed. My free academy, I hope, is just the first of many. 

Be the change you want to see in the world, and all that. Cheesy, but true!

More Opportunities

If you don’t get a place in our academy during our competitive trial process, or don’t have the time for the full year commitment, you can still be a part of the EFS Academy offering!

We will run an additional program of opportunities, including holiday programs, 1-on-1 coaching sessions, overseas football tours, and more. Note that these programs will be paid opportunities — but they are also a great chance to get your talent noticed for our funded academy program. 

Stay tuned for more details about additional programs. 

APPLY NOW: EMAIL ACADEMY@EUROFOOTBALLSTAR.COM TO REQUEST YOUR APPLICATION FORM.