FROM the Toyota Stadium in the Frisco suburb of Dallas, Texas, to the Berry Street Garage Stadium in Bootle, Merseyside, the Liverpool Football College is preparing young footballers for life beyond youth football, providing experiences and forging partnerships designed to help players when they step into the world of professional football, and also if they don’t.

The college’s partnership with City of Liverpool FC, who play their home games at the aforementioned ground in Bootle, has seen a number of young players make the step up from youth football to senior non-league football.

It gives these players a foot on the ladder of the English football league pyramid and helps prepare them for future challenges and opportunities which might arise within the game.

One of the experiences the college provides is participation in the Dallas Cup, which offers budding footballers an opportunity to test themselves against high-level opponents from around the world.

The Liverpool Football College’s U19s won the tournament in 2017, facing sides from Oregon, Miami, California and an FC Dallas youth side, before meeting opponents from closer to home, Knowsley Youth, in the final.

Two goals from Jack Hazlehurst gave the Collage the win in the final played at the 20,500-seater Toyota Stadium, home to Major League Soccer club FC Dallas.

Three years later, Hazlehurst is one of the standout players for City of Liverpool, while John McGrath and Owen Wheeler, a former Liverpool youth goalkeeper, also played in the final and now star for the Purps’ first team.

Other players such as Luke Partington and Alex Murphy have also appeared on the fringes of the senior team after progressing from the club’s junior setup linked to the college.

Perhaps the biggest and most eye-catching partnership the college has is with Liverpool FC legend and current Rangers manager Steven Gerrard. 

The former midfielder had supported the college for a number of years as a player and in November 2019 it became officially known as the Liverpool Football College in association with Steven Gerrard.

And Gerrard sees his role as much more than just having his name attached to it.

“There will be days when I might be here three or four days on the spin and there might be sometime when I go a couple of months without being here,” he told the Liverpool Echo.

“It all depends on my schedule, but the important thing is I am available every day. I am on the phone every day for Dave and the staff, so if there’s anything important that I need to be at, I’ll make sure I can get back and do it.”

The college also offers an education away from football and is like any other further education establishment in this respect, running courses on a wide range of subjects with various levels of qualification available.

It is important for young footballers to have something to fall back on if they decide to leave the game altogether when their playing career comes to an end, or in case they fail to make it professionally.

It’s also important as a footballer’s job now stretches beyond the pitch into the media, and into social media, where they can be questioned on any number of issues surrounding the game.

Many top-level footballers also continue their education while playing. Romelu Lukaku, Fikayo Tomori, Simon Mignolet and Juan Mata are just a handful of top pros who have, or are working towards, qualifications outside of the game.

A team from Liverpool Football College will be heading to the Dallas Cup again in 2020, where another group of hopefuls from the Gerrard-backed institution will be looking to make an impression across the pond.

Players who have made their mark at the tournament in the past include David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez and Andrea Pirlo, but can any of these say they have scored goals against Warrington Town or 1874 Northwich? Or saved a penalty against Prescot Cables?