Southampton Football Club Academy or Saints Academy is the youth organisation run by Southampton Football Club to encourage and develop young footballers in the south of England. There are currently 9 squads at the Academy. Renowned players including Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, and Alan Shearer began their careers at this academy.
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International players
Amongst the players who passed through the Saints Academy and went on to represent their country since the turn of the Millennium are:
In the past, prior to the establishment of the academy, the Southampton youth system has produced other international players, such as Terry Paine, Martin Chivers, Steve Williams, Mick Channon, Matthew Le Tissier and Alan Shearer.
Four former Saints academy players featured in the England Under-21 match against Montenegro on 7 September 2007: Martin Cranie and Theo Walcott both started (with Walcott setting up the second goal) whilst Dexter Blackstock and Andrew Surman came on as second-half substitutes, with Surman scoring the final goal in a 3-0 victory, tapping the ball home in stoppage time from a knock-down by Blackstock.
In England's international friendly against Denmark on 5 March 2014, three graduates of the Southampton F.C. Academy appeared as second-half substitutes: Luke Shaw (making his debut), Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Present structure
The academy manager is Matt Hale. The previous academy manager was Matt Crocker (who served an apprenticeship at Cardiff City), assisted by Terry Moore. Crocker joined The FA as head of coaching and player development in the winter of 2013. Players are looked after by Host Families within the local area. These families are organised and monitored by Family Liaison Officer Ian Herding and his assistant Emma Walker.
The aim of the Southampton academy is to "...produce Premiership class players..."
Currently Southampton's academy set-up is one of the best in the country and they have regularly reached the latter stages of the FA Youth Cup, as well as being successful in the FA Premier Academy League championship. In the 2010–2011 season the U18s were only just "...Pipped to the Title..." by one point on the last day of the season of the Group A league. Southampton had to win and Fulham had to draw or lose for Southampton to come top. After winning 1–3 away to Coventry City the U18s were dismayed to discover Fulham had come back from being 0–3 down versus Leicester City to win 5–3.
The academy has joined up with local college Sparsholt College to try to give those footballers who have missed out on a scholarship the opportunity to remain in the game and train and play matches with the Southampton Academy.
In May 2013, Andre Villas-Boas, manager of Tottenham Hotspur praised the Southampton Academy for its ability to produce star players, describing it as "a great school of development" and comparing it to Sporting Lisbon.
In April 2015, a Southampton U21 side won the U21 Premier League Cup, defeating a Blackburn Rovers U21 side in the two-legged final at St Mary's Stadium in front of more than 12,000 fans. Goals from Ryan Seager and Sam Gallagher cancelled out a Matt Targett own goal to give Southampton a 2–1 victory after extra time to win the second edition of the cup.
Academy 2nd Years 2016-17
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Academy 1st Years 2016-17
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.