Never stop me dreaming: Footballers making the most of a second chance

A player in a black and white Newcastle United shirt holds a silver trophy aloft with one hand as his team-mates celebrate around him. In the background an arched green banner reading 'Carabao Cup Final 2025 winners' is visible. — Living the dream: Dan Burn was one of Newcastle's League Cup winning heroes [Getty Images]

Football loves a fairytale ending, and it got one this week from Dan Burn.

The Newcastle defender made his England debut last night, days after scoring the goal that set his side on the way to their first domestic trophy in 70 years.

But it wasn't always this way for the 32-year-old.

Burn was dropped from the club's academy aged 11, drawing comparisons with Jamie Vardy, another player released by a professional team's youth programme.

Both kept playing non-league football - in Burn's case, while he was pushing trollies at his local supermarket as a teenager - before battling back to top-flight football.

Once upon a time stories like theirs would have seemed like impossible dreams - but is that changing?

Former Premier League striker Charlie Austin has seen both sides of the coin.

He forged a successful pro career after being dropped from an academy, going on to play for Southampton, QPR and West Brom.

Now 35 years old, he plays with AFC Totton in the Southern League Premier South.

He tells BBC Newsbeat the standard of non-league football has dramatically improved in the 15 years since he was last a part of it.

"There's a lot of players now that have come up through academies and then not been given the opportunities at full-time level for one reason or another, and dropped down into the non-league," he says.

"And then, all of a sudden, people are taking a chance on them and they're taking it with both hands.

"I enjoy it. It's a tough test every time I play."

A man in a bright red football shirt with grey panels on the sleeves and shoulders sits at a round table in a conference room. He's smiling, casually leaning one of his heavily tattooed arms on the table next to him. — Charlie Austin plays for AFC Totton after a successful professional career [BBC]

The Premier League launched the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) in the 2012-2013 season in response to concerns there weren't enough homegrown players in the league.

According to a report published 10 years later, there were 14,226 players, ranging from under-8s to under-22s, in the academy system during the 2021-22 season.

The Premier League says it's an "unavoidable reality" that the majority of those young people will leave academy systems without a professional playing career.

But it says 11% of its top-level academy graduates go on to play at least 20 professional league games.

The EFL, which represents clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two, say more homegrown academy players are now playing in their teams.

They say 295 academy-developed players - who played at that club from 16 to 18 - made their first team debut last season. That number went up from 227 the season before.

Being released from the academy track can be a devastating blow for those that don't make it.

But it seems that more players are finding their way back into football in the lower leagues of the game.

Journalists Andrew Cooke and Lee Davies, hosts of the Non-League Treatment Room podcast, have been following the scene for the last 10 years.

"There's a lot of players being released from academies and they have to find somewhere to play," says Andrew.

"Non-league is usually where they go."

Lee says the pair have had a lot of players on the podcast who started out at academies before being released.

Coming into the non-league world is "one heck of a shock to the system", he says.

They agree the standard of games has increased, and there are opportunities to move up.

"I would say that non-league now is better than ever for a stepping stone back into the full-time game," says Lee.

Two young men stand in front of a green mesh fence surrounding a football training ground. One is dressed in a dark blue zip-up training top with the circular crest of Harrogate Town printed on the left breast. The other wears a black training bib with a white "24" numeral on it over a dark blue Harrogate Town strip with light blue stripes. — Team-mates Tom Curson (left) and Josh March took unusual routes into professional football [BBC]

The National League is the fifth tier of English professional football behind the Premier League and three divisions of the EFL.

A spokesperson told Newsbeat they don't keep official stats but there have "definitely been more" players moving up from lower leagues in recent years.

One player who's followed that path is 28-year-old Josh March, who plays for EFL League Two team Harrogate Town.

He had a few short spells with academies as a youngster, but ultimately made his way into the professional game, aged 22, via non-league.

"It's quite a long journey and quite late on really," he says.

"You don't really expect to turn pro at that age, and alongside working a full-time job."

Josh's team-mate Tom Cursons has an even more remarkable tale.

The 23-year-old has never been part of a professional academy, but played part-time while studying sport and exercise science at Nottingham Trent University.

He signed for Harrogate after impressing for Ilkeston Town in the seventh tier of English football.

Tom admits that players like himself, Dan Burn and Jamie Vardy are "extreme examples" and it's still not easy to come up through the lower leagues.

He says he was was "one of the only ones, if not the only one" who hadn't been part of a professional academy system at any point.

That's been a disadvantage on the pitch at times, he says, but is something that's given him other opportunities.

"I probably wouldn't have had the life experience that I've had of going to uni if I'd done a scholarship, or if I'd had one year pro at 18," he says.

"So I don't look back with any regret that I never got signed anywhere, because I've made some incredible memories over the last three-and-a-half years.

"So it's a different path, but I think I've shown that you can still get here."

[BBC]

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

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