Football's Next Star
| Football's Next Star | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Reality sports |
| Starring |
Jamie Redknapp (Mentor) Marco Monti and Paolo Migliavacca (Coaches) |
| Voices of | Seb Fontaine |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 7 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60mins (inc. adverts) |
| Production company(s) | Initial |
| Distributor | Endemol UK |
| Release | |
| Original network | Sky1 |
| Picture format | 16:9 (1080i HDTV) |
| Original release | 3 January – 14 February 2010 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Football Icon |
| External links | |
| Website | |
| Production website | |
Football's Next Star was a television programme broadcast on Sky1 in the United Kingdom. The show aimed to find a young football player who could be the "next big thing" and reward them with a professional contract at Inter Milan in Italy.
Episode 1 starts with the roads shows across the United Kingdom and Ireland where the best forty players are chosen. They battle it out for a spot in the top twenty, then the top ten who go to Milan to compete for the professional contract. Once there one or more players are eliminated each week until the winner is chosen.
Overall seven thousand boys applied for a chance to win the contract. Jamie Redknapp explains that the player Inter Milan are looking for will need to be able to handle life in Italy along with the skill and technique required of a professional footballer. Inter youth coaches Marco Monti and Paolo Migilavacca along with Redknapp attended the road shows. They crossed the Irish Sea in the hunt for players to Dublin and, with Ireland only having a handful of professional football clubs, Jamie Redknapp believed there may be some hidden talent to be found here. One of the players to impress was midfielder Craig Walsh a Dublin native who had won several youth trophies. Craig was selected for the final forty along with eight other Irish players including Connor Smith from Westmeath and Gavin Colton from Leixlip. As well as Gavin Colton and Craig Walsh both of Cherry Orchard football club.
At the roadshows in Scotland, the low turn-out highlighted a worrying trend in Scottish football at the moment. Redknapp visited Scottish club Blackburn United who showed their facilities and how vandalism had held back the club's development. Only four players from Scotland made the final forty including Nathan Taylor from Blackburn United and Reece McGillion from Glasgow. At the Manchester road shows striker Jamie Matthews made a good impression on the judges and was selected for the last forty. It was clear that his life dream was to be a professional footballer. From the London road show some of the players to stand out were Nathan Simpson from Plaistow and Anthony O'Connor from Wembley.
...
Wikipedia