‘What if you don’t make it?’: Trent Alexander-Arnold on football’s brutal talent machine

T rent Alexander-Arnold wants to make clear he has absolutely no regrets about his path to the Premier League. He’s about to recount memories of extreme pressure and major sacrifice. And, really, he’s not complaining. “I’m a success story,” he says, in a soft scouse accent, not boastful. “I look back and I’m proud. I got here through hard work and discipline.” At 24, he has already banked a lifetime of financial and vocational achievements. But he is a rare exception. And for the past few years, that fact has been troubling him.

Like the vast majority of top-flight professional players in the UK and beyond, Alexander-Arnold came up through a football academy. Across the country, around 12,000 boys aged eight and up are enrolled in these training schemes (boys and girls can start training with clubs from as young as five years old). Professional clubs scout young players and help them develop towards the adult game. Around 3,500 boys are currently signed to Premier League academies, but over 99% of children signed to an academy aged nine won’t have a professional footballing career. “There were players who were faster and stronger than me who didn’t make it,” Alexander-Arnold tells. “I’m not moaning about it. I’m not saying I don’t deserve it. But I played with hundreds of kids growing up. Against thousands. What would have happened if it hadn’t worked out for me?”

In February last year, Alexander-Arnold uploaded a video to Instagram asking others who’d been through academies with less success to share their stories. “I wanted to educate myself,” he says, “and to know what happened: where did they go? Who could they turn to? Were clubs helpful? And, most importantly, what did they need that wasn’t there?” The replies