CELEBRATING THE ACADEMY ROVERS ACADEMY IS THE ELITE TRAINING CENTRE FOR TALENTED FOOTBALLERS IN DONCASTER. NINETY-SEVEN BOYS AGED EIGHT TO 16 CURRENTLY MAKE UP THE YOUTH FOUNDATION PHASE (U9-U12) AND YOUTH PROFESSIONAL PHASES (U13-U16) WITH A FURTHER 20 SCHOLARS MAKING UP THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PHASE (U18). Despite the COVID-19 pandemic playing havoc with the playing schedule last season, off the pitch the Academy’s structure has been improving at a rapid pace with the introduction of the pre-academy for boys aged seven and eight and the newly established Doncaster Rovers Training Centre which is headed up by former Rovers goalkeeper Jan Budtz. The Training Centre does two things. It provides high-quality football
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sessions for talented boys and girls in Doncaster but is also the pathway to Rovers Academy with players making the switch from Centre to Academy every week. “The Academy programme is going from strength to strength,” said Academy manager Tony Cook. “I took on this role in 2019 when we didn’t have a pre-Academy. It meant we were losing young, local players to other South Yorkshire clubs.
“We’ve got a very competitive U9s and U10s now and getting these younger players into the set-up has been key to that. “Our mantra is Made In Doncaster and we really want to attract local kids into the system - everyone wants to see one of their own on the pitch. We need some realism with that too – we’re not going to get every single scholarship player to come through from the Foundation Phase but we need to aim for as close to that as possible.
