Academy Games

Trying to ignore the looming fate of the First Team, I’ve enjoyed photographing the Academy teams – The Reds and The Whites,  U18s who play in the Football Conference Youth Alliance matches against similar academy teams across the south-east. Mostly with some very good results – 13:0 and 10:0 most recently. I also attended a presentation made by local school children who have done a project around the football club, including curriculum topics like maths, English, geography, history and art. Putting sometimes ‘dry’ topics into real-world settings with some positive outcomes. Most amusing was the report made that the children had met Kaka – the academy player who featured in the 2014 Nike advert “Winner stays on”. He is/was quite a celebrity and the children wanted his autograph!

Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame lives on.