This week at the international football academy in Manchester, the players have had the final session in the series of seminars with our football consultant, Mick Brennan, looking at how to use their portfolios and showcase themselves in the best ways.
Throughout the 2023/2024 season, a new element of the program has been the regular, in-person, and online seminars for the players, focusing on building their portfolios and how they can maximize opportunities in the game to further their careers.
In this week’s session, the players have been looking at how they can use all the information they have gathered over the season and maximize their contacts through social media.
In an age where social media is the key communication tool for most teenagers, it’s important for the young players to know the best way to work their social media accounts, the best platforms to use, and how to avoid the pitfalls of social media. Mick guided the players through ways to best update their profiles, suggestions of post themes to use, and what not to use on social media.
Following the session, Mick hosted a drop-in session for the players to meet him one-on-one to discuss their portfolios and ask for advice.
This week’s session brings to a close the series of seminars, which has guided players through a step-by-step way to develop and use a player portfolio. The hope of the academy is that these portfolios that players have had the opportunity to develop will be an important tool for them to find links and contacts for their career, and something that can stay with them for a long time to assist in their futures.
Mick Brennan said of the session, ‘Today was a great roundup of the season’s sessions. It was great to see that a number of the players have really taken onboard the information and have created a portfolio that they can really use. We focused on social media today, something that many of the lads will be more up to date with than us, however it was interesting how many didn’t have the social media channels that would really get them seen. Things like Facebook and LinkedIn could be key to getting the right contacts, and not many had these. It was also great to chat one-on-one to some of the lads afterwards and offer advice, there are some really talented players in the academy with some good back stories, so them realizing how and what to use was really important. Hopefully, I’ve been able to help a few of the lads get a good portfolio together that they can use going forward.’
Following the session, head of football Sam commented, ‘Some great information there that the lads can really use. A number of the lads had spoken to me about their portfolios so to have an hour or so where Mick was available to chat one-on-one was great.’
The Manchester players are now looking towards this Friday’s game where they get a chance to play Stockport once again and put right the defeat of last week.
