Some years ago, football scout Errol Johnson was attending a match when he spotted a boy standing on the sidelines practising his skills. The boy was dressed in jeans. “I told him I was a scout,” recalls Mr Johnson, who then worked for south London club Crystal Palace. “I said that if he could do that in a pair of shorts he was all mine.” The young player went on to get a scholarship to Crystal Palace and now plays semi-professionally for Maidstone.
In his 13 years of scouting, Johnson has spotted talent in suburban parks and cages on housing estates, as well as more formal pitches. “You’ll find young people playing football anywhere. I could be walking through the park, see a football match and scout a player. Sometimes on housing estates but also at arranged games and showcased games.”
England’s triumph at the women’s Euros and the return of the Premier League for a new season will only have strengthened the determination of thousands of young, talented players hoping to be the next Lionel Messi or Chloe Kelly. In reality, fewer than one per cent of children who get picked for football clubs’ youth academies will play professionally at any level. Many will face rejection and disappointment even if they are scouted – though that doesn’t put them off.
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This journey is the subject of a new documentary, One Shot: The Football Factory, which features Johnson, a youth worker and renowned scout who now works for north London club Arsenal. He says he is “surrounded by talent” in his home of South London, where around 20 per cent of Premier League players first began kicking a ball around, including talents such as Jadon Sancho and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Mr Johnson has had many successes of his own, including English football player Ryan Inniss who turned professional in 2011 and captained England. “On the day of his 16th birthday, he came up to me and said he had a letter for an England medical. When he went and played for England I told him he’d captain,” Johnson recalls.
His journey as a scout started when a friend introduced him to Crystal Palace coach Fred Dylan, who asked him to bring in young players for a trial. Johnson had worked with children at youth clubs for many years and knew there was a lot of talent around. “What happened after that changed my life,” he says.
Mr Johnson says it’s the best feeling when he sees the kids who he mentors and grows close to get into clubs and start their journey. “I can see kids come in and in 18 months they’re millionaires. In three or four years they’re driving £100,000 cars. It can change that quick,” says Johnson. The opening episode of One Shot sees a young boy, Yomi, reflecting on his shift work at McDonald’s and Iceland. He says: “When I put on my uniform I tell myself that I still have dreams I am trying to achieve, that it’s not going to be like this for ever.”
Mr Johnson tries to keep in contact with the players he scouts. Many successful players call him years later thanking him and updating him on their lives, which he says is deeply rewarding. “I always say as long as I can get a free ticket I’m happy,” he jokes.
Although he says football is the best job in the world, building a relationship with the kids that do not make it can be emotionally taxing. “When they don’t get in it hurts. I can’t talk for a couple of hours – it’s devastating. I can be emotionally wrecked especially if they did well. If they didn’t do well then I can live with it,” he says.
For some hopefuls, the stakes can be incredibly high. Johnson has helped many boys rise through the ranks who come from severely deprived or chaotic homes. “Some stories are real tear-jerkers and they make you cry because [if they are accepted] it changes their life and their circumstances. I’ve gone home and cried a few times.”
There are moments of great satisfaction. “A kid I worked with came from Iraq and I said to him that I wanted to change his life. That was on a Wednesday and by Friday he was in an ad campaign for the World Cup.”
One memory that haunts him still is of a young boy who begged Johnson to let him bring in a friend for a trial. “I didn’t really want to as it could jeopardise his scholarship, but he begged and begged. The other boy got the scholarship and he didn’t. That one hurt,” he says.
For Johnson, he feels his role doesn’t end when the trial does, though. If a talented child is rejected from a club, he does his best to help them try for another, and another. “I’m always going to push them to be positive. Even when they’re negative, I’m still going to fight their corner until they give up. I say to the young people: “I only give up when you give up. If you’re not giving up then I can’t give up.”
His attention and determination to help the boys goes far beyond the football pitch. He mentors them, gives them homework to help them learn their positions better and sometimes drives them across the country for trials out of his own pocket. He recalls driving a team five hours across the country to a five-star hotel to play – without asking the parents for a penny. Since then, he has had mothers and fathers offer to fund the training of players he scouts that are not able to pay for it themselves.
“It’s their dream. I’m just a facilitator to that dream. I’m someone that can help them and if they go all the way you’re happy to be a part of that journey,” he says.
The euphoria following England’s Euros win is likely to mean more girls will be seen playing in parks and pitches around the country. Johnson’s job only involves boys (women’s teams have their own talent pathways), but he says: “I have a good young woman player I’m working with now and I’m trying to find her a club. She’s only 13 but she’s really good.”
In Johnson’s opinion, scouts are the important thing in a football club as they find the talent and act as the first point of contact between the parent and the club. “People might say we’re the bottom of the food chain but I don’t think we are.”
For young, talented players, Johnson says the key to success is to dream big. “To be successful at anything in life you need desire. It gets you through the good times and bad times,” he says. The willingness to learn, and the thirst for information, are “all built off desire”, he says.
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