My brother Osaro is studying Sports Journalism. If you’re interested in sports, particularly football, here is his portfolio, which consists of his interviews, new reports, long pieces, and media work.
Interview –
Adam Hussains Journey with Bromley-By-Bow FC
My interview will be on a player who plays for local team Bromley-by-Bow FC and is an extremely talented left footed wizard named Adam Hussain.
My interest in the club stems from my upbringing in the area. I was born and raised in the borough of Tower Hamlets, specifically growing up in the Bromley-by-Bow community, which is very deprived but has been on an upward trajectory for many years now.
The club Bromley-by-Bow FC was founded in 1989 and was intended to be a 7 aside team that consisted of young players and they entered advertised events that anyone could take part in.
They went on to win many of the tournaments they entered and started to build a reputation around East London, naturally, the only way to progress as a club was to become an 11 aside team to allow more players to get involved and eventually take part in bigger tournaments. The club currently take part in the Premier Division of the BFA summer league and ILFL winter league.
The reason why this club is so impactful for the youth is because it’s an opportunity to get them out of the struggles of living in an area that has a lot of negative influences whether it’s gang violence or selling drugs which is unfortunately something that happens often in many areas around London in general.
My intentions were to find out why Adam decided to represent the community-based club and to also discuss more about what the club means for the community itself.
Adam’s interest had come from his uncle playing for the team and had grown up within the Bromley-by-Bow area too, it’s been 2 years since he started playing for their team now and has been a regular player for them ever since.
For Adam, the community aspect of the club seems to be a huge driving force them as they hold multiple workshops during the winter and summer periods to help the youth with alternatives to do other than stay on the streets.
The facilities have made slight improvements namely the investment of an actual astroturf for where they train as it used to be concrete, this was included around the year 2018.
The Bromley-by-Bow team has grown over the years, but since the club only takes part in seasonal games, a lot if not all the players play for other clubs that are based in Tower Hamlets or East London in general.
He also mentioned that a club taking part in a tournament in Qatar is huge seeing as they would initially like to build a name for themselves, and this could be a way they could bring more investment into the club if they gain attraction whilst on their tour in Qatar.
To further show their connection with the community, Adam talks about how he has been part of fundraisers during Ramadan, where they raise money for people in need, so they set up events to participate during the day.
Some aspirations for Adam would be integrating the youth from the Bromley-by-Bow community so that there’s that understanding from a young age about what it means to play for the club, in doing this it will not only maintain the ambition to win but to maintain that connection with the community which is at the heart of this club.
1st news story-
Should the Ballon d’Or be Based on Team Success or Individual Brilliance?
The Ballon d’Or, the most prestigious individual award there is in the game, and we are now past the era of dominance from Messi and Ronaldo winning it year on year people have started the debate on who should take the award for the year 2024.
The current favourite is the exciting Brazilian winger Vinicius Jr who has been the most integral player for Real Madrid this year, getting goal contributions against teams such as Manchester City and Bayern Munich in the lead up to the final against Dortmund in which he scored the winning goal.
Early in 2024 played again Barcelona in the Supercopa final, which was their first opportunity of silverware, seeing as this was an El Clasico it was bound to be a highly contested match, this then led Vinicius getting an inspiring hattrick that helped Real Madrid win 4-1.
The arguments for Vinicius not winning the award are to him not performing at the required standard at international level in comparison to who is rivalling him in the award, Rodri as he was a key figure for Spain during the Euros winning the tournament in such a dominant fashion.
However, to be crucial for his national team, one of his biggest moments was scoring a decisive goal to equalise against Georgia in the round of 16 which led to Spain eventually winning 4-1 in which Rodri was vital in.
These two players have had incredible performances this year, and will be interesting to see whether the Ballon d’Or go for the usual attacker or go for a more all-round player like Rodri?
2nd news story-
Manchester United Sack Erik Ten Hag After Disaster start to season
With Manchester United having the worst start to a premier league season since the 80s Erik Ten Hag was bound to be the one that takes all the blame, after having one if the worst season in the club’s history although salvaging something by beating Premier League champions Manchester City I the FA cup final the owners decided to give him one more chance.
After heavily backing Erik Ten Hag in the summer transfer window spending close to £200million on new players to help improve the team and finally suite the way he would like to play, the same issues occurred.
In the Premier League after match week 9 Manchester United still languishing in midtable after the heavy investment and not winning any game in the Europa league just wasn’t good enough for the owners.
The embarrassing loss against West Ham was a point of no return for Erik Ten Hag as days later the pulled the plug and decided to sack the dutchman, this left Manchester United fans happy yet still concerned seeing as they felt like it has been left too late.
Ruud Van Nistelrooy has taken the role as interim head coach until the club decide on who will take helm of the club moving forward, names like Ruben Amorim, Gareth Southgate, Graham Potter and Xavi have all been rumoured to potentially take the role as head coach to hopefully turn the situation around at the club.
Op ed –
Youth Development Vs. Big Transfers
In the modern game of football, the elite teams like Manchester City, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Barcelona are some of the biggest examples of spending big and using the youth at the highest level whilst still being successful. Being able to balance the two strategies will ultimately define the long-term identity of the club and success. We take a look into some of the most relevant clubs in Europe and see what their strategy is.
Chelsea
The 2003 takeover of Chelsea Football Club was the start of a long successful tenure of the club winning multiple titles. This stemmed from the Chelsea owner at the time, Roman Abramovic, and his ambition to ‘’buy big and win now’’, which at the time proved to be very effective as no other club was able to match the clubs spending.
However, as time went on the strategy was not proving to be as effective seeing as more teams were able to spend too and Chelsea seemingly ran into FFP issues which meant they were hit with a ban leading up to the 19/20 premier league season, this was a season where Chelsea were essentially forced to turn to the youth talents after seeing a few big names which meant talents like Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Reece James became first team starters for Chelsea in their first season in the Premier League. This proved to be a very successful season at the club as they finished in the top 4 of the Premier League, reached the round of 16s in the Champions League and got to the FA Cup final.
Manchester City
The blues in Manchester followed a similar path to their Premier League rivals when they were taken over by the Abu Dhabi Group in 2008 and had just the same amount of ambition as Chelsea when it came down to spending money on top talents. However, they did take a different approach to it as they were heavily focusing on making sure the infrastructure was right so they will eventually be a club that consistently win the biggest titles. Once Manchester City were able to bring in the top talents like David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne, they were eventually able to close the gap to the giants in the Premier League and to even overtake their successes.
Real Madrid
The ‘Galactico’s’ are notorious for investing heavily on the superstars over the past decades notably under their president Florentino Perez. The acquirement of arguably their biggest legend Cristiano Ronaldo, who had already won a Ballon d’Or for Manchester United, is enough alone to say their policy works for them as in that same window they brought in another Ballon d’Or winner in Kaka, who was signed from Milan. They also invested in a talented 21-year-old centre forward at the time named Karim Benzema, who was showcasing his ability for his home club Olympique de Lyon in Ligue One.
Barcelona
Barcelona have managed to produce some of the best players in the game from their academy, namely Lionel Messi, Xavi, Puyol, Sergio Busquets, which shaped an era of dominance for the club. Despite the strength of Barcelona’s Academy ‘La Masia’ they have never really shied away from spending big they have made many high-profile signings like Neymar or Ousmane Dembele as they have attempted to aspire for the biggest titles. However, the results of them spending big have come with mixed results as there have been many that haven’t lived up to that price tag.
The appeal of big money transfers
The clubs with heavy financial power do not just go out to splash money on the players with the biggest names, but they also tend to look at the commercial aspect of the player to see if they reach an audience that will boost the revenue for the club with other forms of income, such as shirt sales. The biggest example of this would be the recent transfer of Kylian Mbappe. While he moved to Madrid on a free transfer, he is on a 15 million euros per year contract and had a 150 million euros sign on bonus, which is hardly cheap. However, when you look at how global of a superstar Kylian Mbappe is, they would easily be able to make the money back through other means, such as from shirt sales, as in fact, on the first day of his No.9 kit being released, Real Madrid made 800,000 euros.
Benefits of utilising Youth Academy Products
At the highest level of football, you must be able to perform for these big clubs, seeing as their ambitions are to win consistently. At a very demanding club such as Barcelona, they have managed to rebuild themselves thanks to the likes of Gavi, Hector Fort, Pau Cubarsi and Marc Casado.
For Chelsea, one of their biggest Legends John Terry came from the academy and was a main figure for that team, he became captain for the club and stayed from 2004 until 2017. He is now considered one of the greatest captains in the Premier League history.
Conclusion
These examples show that when you do nurture the talents you have your disposal, they tend to understand the culture of the club and what is required of them week in and week out when playing. Of course, you will be able to find players elsewhere to bring in that can show that same feature, but when they come from the club’s academy, it means more and it is a platform for other players in the future that want to follows in their footsteps.
Social media post –
My post was on a match review on Chelsea v Southampton. Posted on my Chelsea Instagram account @cfc_gen.
Podcast –
Review –
Chelsea vs Manchester United Match Review
In the opening 10 fixtures of the 24/25 Premier League season it’s been very different for both clubs, Chelsea have had a very positive start to the season unlike their prior seasons sitting in top 6 prior this game, life under their new manager Enzo Maresca has brought new ideas which has suited a number of players, however, not all has been perfect as they did lose to both Liverpool and Manchester City who respectively are the best teams in the league as they’re both in the top 2.
On the other hand, you have Manchester United who have statistically had their worst start to a season in the Premier League for years which did lead to them sacking their manager Erik Ten Hag after their “unlucky” 2-1 loss to West Ham, fans were growing restless with the manager seeing as it’s his third season in charge and there has been no change in their playstyle and no progress in the league table as they’re sitting in 14th place.
Going into the game naturally Chelsea would be favourites based on the league positions, however, Chelsea have not won at Old Trafford in the Premier League since 2013, so it was never going to be easy.
In this game Manchester United had fielded a side ready to be physical and disrupt Chelsea’s flow during the game making many fouls especially on Chelsea’s star man Cole Palmer who wasn’t able to play as freely as would like to.
Chelsea was struggling to create in the first half but came close with a Madueke chance and multiple blocked efforts from Cole Palmer, Manchester United’s game was very much to counter via the wings as their biggest strength comes from the pace of their wingers and they created a few half chances doing this.
Enzo Maresca plays a unique way as he wants one of his fullbacks to invert not just as a midfielder but as a no.10 at times in games, Malo Gusto of Chelsea found himself in that position constantly in the first half but was not affecting the game enough and was at times messing with the team’s flow with his misplaced passes.
Going into the second half Manchester United must have felt encouraged as they were handling the Chelsea attack well, so they fielded the same team in the second half.
However, Chelsea felt like they had to change something for a bit more balance for the side and they brought on their left back Marc Cucurella in replacement for Malo Gusto which then saw Reece James move back to his natural position.
Chelsea was still finding it difficult to break Manchester United down this game and they were still sustainable to the counterattack, but you could see there was much more control when they had the ball.
Manchester United then managed to win a penalty after a ball was put into the box via a cross and the Chelsea goalkeeper made light contact with the Manchester United striker, the penalty was then given by VAR and as dispatched by Bruno Fernandes.
After this a team would very much be discouraged seeing as Chelsea were struggling to break them down but they knew they still had the quality to get back in the game.
Chelsea takes one of their many corners of the game which was cleared by Casemiro out to Chelsea’s best player of the game Moises Caicedo who rifles and excellent volley to the near post which was unsavable.
Both teams had chances to win the game as it progressed, Chelsea would feel hard done by with the reckless Martinez challenge on Cole palmer which was waved off by VAR.
This saw the game end as a 1-1 between the two English clubs which sees Manchester United move to 13th and Chelsea move to 4th in the Premier League table.
Long-form Piece –
Mental Health in Football: Breaking the Silence
The world faces the problem of the youth not being able to voice their mental health issues. The World Health Organisation says 1 in 8 people globally live with a form of mental health, things like anxiety and depression are the most common, modern societal pressures and crises like COVID-19 did heighten these cases.
The World Health Organisation also mentions that the global loses over £1trillion every year in productivity due to depression and anxiety disorders, this burden is significant in professional sports seeing as you are expected to produce high level performances consistently.
When discussing the issues of mental health socially it can lead to discrimination, isolation and exclusion which does contribute to the youth being unable to talk about their difficulties with their mental health.
For the youth players that try make their way up in the football ranks now they must sacrifice so much of their time trying to compete against hundreds and thousands of young talents, all to reach the highest level of the game.
In this current day and age people tend to disregard the mental challenges that the youth tend to face when they go through this process of pushing themselves to the limit daily. When a youth player gets released from a club the toll it takes on them would be huge as all they’ve worked, they would think would be for nothing.
Another huge trial that these players face are long term injuries that keep them out for a long time, anxiety and depression are things that will seriously impact these players because they’d be unsure about whether the get back to the level, they we’re playing at previously.
The feeling of isolation is something that is not discussed when you have a long-term injury, you tend to feel disconnected from your teammates as you are focusing on your rehabilitation, and you could risk not having a social life too.
There are legends of them who had struggled with mental health whilst climbing the ranks of football, one being Andreas Iniesta as one of his closest friends passed in 2009 and of course playing for Barcelona especially during that era there was a standard expected for you to uphold in terms of performances, thankfully for him he was able to persevere during this difficult time in his life and eventually become a legend at the club.
For academy player Jeremy Wisten it was much more serious for him as the 18-year-old was playing for the Manchester City and after being released he was going through serious struggles with his mental health, unfortunately the young man took his own life due to this.
This raises the point of whether there is good enough after care for the academy players when they do get released from their clubs. Premier League clubs are now expected to provide support for their released academy products, which would include career advice, mental health counselling and pathways into whether its further education or employment that would interest them.
High profile clubs have increasingly provided access to mental health resources for the academies, psychologists have been employed by the academy systems to make sure the players are not too overwhelmed by their situations.
The Heads-up initiative started by the FA aims to break the stigma around mental health in football which encourages these youth players to actively seek out help when struggling with their mental health.
There has been more of an emphasis on these clubs making sure these players are doing their education alongside the football as it helps with there being options afterwards and it generally keeps them grounded as it’s a way of not only focusing on the sport that’s taking up most of your time.
The research into players well-being has been a focus area as it helps identify the risk factors and improving the support systems, this helps the clubs in their reviews for their academy players which is a policy that they need to carry out now.
High profile players have taken this opportunity to voice their experiences on their own mental struggles they’ve faced climbing the ranks in the game, players like Marcus Rashford, Tyrone Mings and Danny Rose. Them just opening up about their own issues will be a huge encouragement for the youth players have the confidence and open up on their mental health too.
There have been partnerships with organisations like the PFA, Sporting Chance and Mind, they’ve been working with clubs in order to provide resources and workshops for the youth players.
The family of the players will be very crucial in making sure there is that emotional support for the difficult moments in the players life, there have been programs for the families to take so that they will be educated on how to navigate the pressures of academy life especially if they have been released.
Although there have been tragic cases for certain players there also some who have managed to fight through the struggles of being released by the clubs they were at. A famous example of this is when Harry Kane had been released by Arsenal at the age of 8 years old after being told he was too small and unathletic.
Hearing these things at such a young age would’ve been difficult and would affect anyone at that age, however, this motivated the young Harry Kane as he worked tirelessly trying to improve his game once he’d move to North London rivals Tottenham.
After loan spells at different clubs, he eventually was given the chance to show his ability and is now considered one of the all-time great premier league strikers and to top it he became the captain for the national team.
The England star man opened up about when he was released, “When people doubt, you have to use it to your advantage. It’s up to you to prove them wrong”.
The comments from Harry Kane is proof of how much of how mentally strong you need to be to become one of the very best in football, however, not everyone is able to take the criticism and being told that you are not good enough and to then turn it into motivation, every youth player needs an arm around them, no one wants to feel worthless at such a young age.
Today in football the managers and coaches have recognised the pressures of playing for these youth academies, Pep Guardiola voiced his opinion on this saying, “Young players have a lot of pressure now- social media, expectations, comparisons. We need to protect them and make sure they grow not only as players but as people.”
The part of making sure they grow as “people” holds so much importance as all the mental pressures and expectations the youth players face is bound to help them for whatever they go on to do.
The families and local communities can play a huge role in supporting players that face pressures in football, a high-profile example of this would be the Euros 2020 where Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka missed the penalties for England in the penalty shootout in the final.
They had to endure endless backlash online with a lot of racism coming their way which no one should go through, understandably this would have affected their mental health in a big way especially Bukayo Saka being the final penalty taker and being only 19 years old at the time in his first major tournament.
The teammates naturally stood by these players during this difficult period for them due to the volume of backlash they were facing after the tournament. In Withington, Manchester there was a mural created for Marcus Rashford but there were racial slurs put on it after the final, however red love hearts were put over it with words like “hero”, “role model” and “adored” to show support to the English star.
To conclude, addressing the mental health of youth players is not only about fostering better athletes but building resilient individuals who can understand and deal with the pressures of playing this sport. Creating a culture of openness through mental health resources at these clubs’ football can be lead the way in making sure young men are able to thrive in this society.
As the challenges of the game do evolve year by year prioritising the wellbeing of these players will become essential to being successful on and off the pitch. Doing this upholds the integrity of football as a sport that encourages growth, community and support.
Uchay Writes 
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