Chris Ewing making mark thanks to French venture

Former Motherwell player Chris Ewing with some of his charges during a coaching session at Spartans. Picture: Andrew OBrien

The academy brings French boys, average age 19, to Scotland for a year and provides them with football coaching and language teaching. From 18 players in year one, there are now 56, and for the first time Edusport now has students in Edinburgh as well as its original base of Hamilton.

As its name suggests, Edusport’s emphasis is as much on personal development as it is on football. While the students may dream of a career as a professional, Ewing insists they take a realistic approach and equip themselves with other skills as well.

It was the adoption of that approach, Ewing explained, that led, eventually, to the foundation of Edusport. “I didn’t make it as a footballer, I realised I wasn’t good enough, and I looked at other things early enough to make a life for myself,” he said as we watched the academy’s Edinburgh contingent being put through their paces on the main pitch at Spartans by a coaching staff that includes Dumbarton assistant manager Guillaume Beuzelin and Berwick Rangers boss Colin Cameron.

“My dad was a bricklayer, my mum was in and out of different employment, I’m from Pollok in Glasgow. I feel very privileged to own a football company and live and work in Paris. I’m a very, very lucky guy.

“What changed my life was when I was 16 my dad took me to the World Cup. Tommy Coyne, my cousin, was playing for Ireland in New York against Italy. That just did something to me – I thought ‘The world is out there, it’s big, it’s not just Glasgow’.

“After that I always had the urge to travel. My family used to ask me why I was always dreaming, why did I not just get an apprenticeship. That for me was hell – there was no way I would do that.

“That wanderlust gave me the courage to go to Paris, initially working as a barman, then I quickly realised I had to learn the language if I was going to progress. I asked myself ‘What can you do? What do you know? Okay, I know football.”

With the separate elements in place – football, language learning, contacts in Scotland and France – Ewing was ready to start recruiting for year one. “I haven’t yet met one person who has said ‘Do you know what? That’s a bad idea – football and education. English language in a foreign country – that’s a rubbish idea’.

“Of course it’s a good idea. But it’s important it’s done well, particularly because it is a business. What matters at the end of the day is the guys – the boys who come over and put confidence in myself and the project.

“Everything I do is trying to link football and education. Through my own experience as a failed footballer I know how important education is, and that’s what led me to set up the academy.

“It’s a private academy, with a financial commitment. It costs £14,000 for a year, which is a lot of money, of course, but for what they get in return it is relatively inexpensive. If you go to any private language school it would cost more to come here and study English for a year. The £14,000 includes food, accommodation, daily training at top-class facilities, quality, Uefa-qualified coaching from guys like Guillaume and Colin. So I would suggest it’s a decent deal.

“Unfortunately, finance is a barrier to some people, but we try and work closely with banks to provide loans. It’s a fantastic opportunity and can be an unforgettable year for them.

“Some of the boys can come over with a slightly arrogant attitude, saying ‘We’re France, we’re a big country, we’ve won the World Cup’ and look at Scotland as being at an inferior level. But their parents, in fairness, usually look at it as a fantastic opportunity for their son in football and in English.

“In France, in Europe, the coaching style is very different to what we have here in Scotland, and we try to take a mixture of the best parts – the technical ability from France, and the passion and desire from Scotland – to make a more complete footballer at the end of it. There’s absolutely no doubt that these guys will go back at the end of the year far better footballers.”

Although the vast majority do return to France, the academy has already seen one graduate, Morton goalkeeper Nico Caraux, go on to join a professional club here. Now, with membership of the South of Scotland League, Edusport also has a chance to progress as a club in its own right through the pyramid system. For what is a scratch side of age-group players, it has got off to a very respectable start.

“It’s fantastic – I’m really surprised to have been accepted into the league,” Ewing said. “It’s very exciting, the first private football academy in the UK, probably Europe or even the world, to get membership of a Fifa federation.

“I was invited to the AGM at Castle Douglas to put forward my application, then it got put to a vote. The guys were great and let us into the league.

“There’s a lot of travel involved for us, but it gives our boys regular competitive matches. We play at Hamilton Palace sports complex, which is 150 metres from the guys’ accommodation, so it is literally a home ground for them.

“The first eight games we had to field a makeshift squad of young Scottish players because the academy boys didn’t come over from France until last week, but they did well and we’re sitting mid-table.”

On Saturday the French youths had another chance to measure their progress against seasoned Scottish players, and recorded a convincing 4-0 victory over Creetown in the first round of the South League Cup.

It may be a bit soon to expect them to go on and win trophies this season, but they’re learning fast – both on and off the field.