Sydney FC’s academy continues to produce players for the Isuzu UTE A-League and national teams. NPL/NYL head coach and senior academy technical lead Jim van Weeren speaks to aleagues.com.au about the success of the club’s academy program and more.
A quick glance at Australia’s Under-23 side and you quickly get an idea of how successful Sydney FC’s academy setup has been.
That is before you even begin to look at the club’s 2024-25 Isuzu UTE A-League squad.
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE
Australia’s U23 squad for this month’s Doha International Cup in Qatar is stacked with A-Leagues talent. Sydney FC have two representatives – Golden Boot contender Adrian Segecic and Corey Hollman – but the Sky Blues’ influence on this current side runs deeper with five other academy graduates called up by Tony Vidmar: Macarthur Bulls’ Kealey Adamson (two years at the club), Central Coast Mariners defender Nathan Paull (four years), Western Sydney Wanderers duo Oscar Priestman (seven years) and Aidan Simmons (seven years), and Newcastle Jets star Clayton Taylor (seven years).
Ufuk Talay’s first-team squad also has academy fingerprints all over it.
Segecic, Hollman, Jaiden Kucharski and Wataru Kamijo have all graduated from Sydney’s youth program, as have Aaron Gurd, Tiago Quintal, Marin France, Will Kennedy, Gus Hoefsloot, Lachie Middleton, Zac De Jesus, Joseph Lacey, Tyler Williams and Nickolas Alfaro, who have all had a taste of senior football in 2024-25 – whether that be in the A-Leagues, Australia Cup or AFC Champions League Two.
So, why have Sydney been so successful developing players from the academy to the senior team – whether that be for the Sky Blues or elsewhere?
WONDERKID WATCH: Goalscoring great’s son goes berserk in outrageous 17-1 rout
“I think the first thing is on a scouting and recruitment level that you identify players with the highest potential,” NPL/NYL head coach and senior academy technical lead Jim van Weeren told aleagues.com.au.
“The highest long-term potential, because that’s always going to help.
“As you get towards the end of the academy pathway, those with the highest potential, and assuming player and club can help them achieve the potential they’re going to get the furthest they can get.
“Then I think it’s a few things. So here we have a really clear set of values in the academy, and we have a really clear philosophy of how to produce individual players and that often means that, at times, coaches lose games.
“No coach wants to lose any games. We want to win every game we’re in, but sometimes – and Wataru is a good example of that 12 months ago, when he returned from injury and came back into the NPL team. He was struggling, because the NPL men’s competition here is a very good competition. There’s no easy games, but we as a club persevere with players through tough times, knowing that in time through training and match minutes that they’re going to achieve their potential.
PREVIEW: What you need to know for Round 23 of the Isuzu UTE A-League
“With Wataru, it has been a great story and he’s one of a few names. I think maintaining that player development is important, especially in the NPL space, because you’re competing against teams that are win at all cost.
“So for us, it’s how we manage the two competing objectives in that dynamic of trying to win games that are not being the starting point and remembering that we’re assessed on how many individual players we produce for the first team, for junior national teams and beyond.”
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE
Kamijo’s rise has been impressive, but comes as no surprise to Van Weeren and his staff.
The 18-year-old midfielder started Sydney’s historic ACL Two quarter-final first leg away to Korean giants Jeonbuk Motors last week.
DEEP DIVE: Adelaide’s ‘remarkable talent’ is dominating the A-Leagues midfield at age 21
“We’re all super happy for him but you know, sometimes it’s not surprising, because what we saw he was capable of in the NPL level,” he said.
“Your eye could kind of tell you that he’s already above this level. It’s just a matter of opportunity for him, and when he gets the opportunity. After playing a number of games and being match ready it’s no surprise that (he) can make a step up like that and not only hold his own, but almost excel. So not surprised on that one, but happy for him.”
The success of Sydney FC’s academy is evident. The proof is in the numbers. Upon the launch of their academy, the Sky Blues shared their vision in which they intended “to create Australia’s number one junior football academy”.
Sydney’s academy vision, developed by board member Han Berger and Youth Technical Director Kelly Cross, “is designed to ensure Academy players are given the best environment in which to achieve their goals.”
The Sky Blues, and their rivals, are reaping the benefits.
“The first thing would be to acknowledge the whole system, because you know when you hear guys have been here from the U13s, and they work their way through the system and I’m the last stage in the system,” Van Weeren said, having worked with 14 of the academy graduates in Sydney’s first team this term.
“The first thing is to acknowledge that I haven’t done anything extraordinary. But rather as a collective group of staff, (we’ve) allowed players to come through the system over time and really become homegrown players.
“When you look at some of that list and the number of years that they’ve been here, I think there’s a real feeling of pride from the staff. I speak on behalf of all the staff that, we didn’t just bring these guys in for two minutes, and they’ve got a contract. They’ve been here for a long time. They’ve had a lot of setbacks, they’ve had a lot of success, and now all of a sudden, they’re in the first team.
“My role in the academy, at the end of the system is rewarding on a different level, because often when the players first come into the NPL team, they really struggle. It’s the first time in their lives where they’ve got to play (against) men and some of the some of the guys playing in the NPL competition have played a number of years in the A-League themselves.
‘THAT’S WHAT WE’RE MISSING’: A-Leagues star backed to finally solve Socceroos’ biggest problem
“If they’re fully physically developed, and they’re strong and they’re quick, you’ve got an U17 or U18 player learning in the deep end how to play against men. So for us, it’s nice at the top end of the academy, because they come through, and they’re talented players, and then they find life really difficult.
“Over time, that line turns itself around. Sometimes it takes six, 12, 18 months or two years in the NPL team, and you see someone come out like Hayden Matthews, where, they were top, top, top-level players in that competition.”
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE
Sydney’s academy is always looking to grow and improve, and they had the chance to test themselves against one of Japan’s biggest clubs recently.
Last week, Kashima Antlers were in town for youth friendlies against the likes of Sydney FC and rivals Western Sydney Wanderers.
For Sydney, they hosted Kashima and split a pair of friendlies. The U16-18s lost 4-1 before the U17-20s triumphed 2-1.
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE
“The first thing is you can see the technical ability level across the board from their players,” Van Weeren reflected. “The difference from the best players in their squad to, I guess, the younger, still more developing players is very minimal.
“Then speaking with the staff afterwards, hearing the training volume that those players are exposed to throughout their youth development pathway, it’s no shock that you see what you see by the time they’re 18 and 19, because of the volume of training and exposure to training time and match time that they’ve had.
“Which is then to compare us to them, especially considering that Australia on an international level is quite low in training volume, where we’re very competitive in and around that age group, despite the constraints we have here with training time.
“I think it’s what one part would be to compliment the ability of playing the Kashima Antlers Academy team, but then also to compliment our own players here, because definitely competitive at that age group level against one of the benchmark academies coming out of Japan.”
Van Weeren added: “I think they (Kashima) really appreciated it. So their U19 team, the top players from their U19 team played almost us age for age, and it was a difficult game for them.
“I think some of the statistics to come out of that game, we had 60% of the ball, equal number of shots in the box. We obviously converted two, and they only converted one. In terms of the numbers that we would look at to say, how did we compare in that game? I think it’s really positive for for the players from Sydney FC that got to play that level of opposition.”
It was a chance for Sydney’s cohort to go head-to-head with some of Japan’s best as the Sky Blues look to unearth more future stars.
Van Weeren said there is a “large number” of youngsters emerging behind the scenes.
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE
“I think every year we’re growing and evolving as an academy, learning and developing ourselves,” he said.
“I think the more and more we look at our current kind of crop of players, there’s going to be a large number, which is a good player problem to have because you know, ideally we want them all in our first team, but the reality is, there’s only a limited number of spots.
“As an academy, we have a responsibility to develop every player to their potential.
“We see a reward, obviously, in our first team, but also, it’s like looking at the current U23 national team for us. There was a large number of guys there that spent significant time in the academy.”
