Palace’s success in producing professional footballers is high, with Wilfried Zaha the most-played Academy player to rise all the way through the club’s ranks in recent decades (432 appearances), and a graduate has represented the first-team once every 168 days since 2004.
Looking just below professional level, the Academy handed out 17 professional contracts in the last 12 months to its most promising players, with several on the verge of the first-team squad.
Across the Premier League, Category 1 academies such as Palace’s have a commendable record in producing homegrown talent. In the last decade, approximately 30% of players at Category 1 academies have gained a professional contract and around 10% have made 20 or more professional league appearances.
Of course not every Academy player will make the first-team or become a professional footballer, but the club ensures each youngster to represent Crystal Palace’s Academy is prepared for life outside the sport.
To this end, Palace Chairman Steve Parish says, if the Academy produces “better young people than the people who arrive, more rounded and more capable of dealing with their life, then we’ve done a good job.”
Prospects enter the Academy intent on becoming professional footballers, but all those aged over 15 will attain professional qualifications such as A-levels, BTECs, or similar, vastly enhancing their career prospects for life away from the pitch.
And it’s not just the coaches, scouts and analysts of the future who are holistically prepared by an Academy education; even those players who do enter the playing pyramid do so with more than just ball skills.
“We’re wholly responsibly for their achievement and attainment here,” says Head of Education Rowan Griffiths. “Every single member of the 15 second-year scholar graduates is finishing their Under-18 season with at least two A-level equivalent qualifications each.
