01
Faculty to be announced
Building a Youth Game Model: One Identity, Every Age Group
How to build a clear identity and a learning process that fits each phase: technical, tactical, physical and psychological, in one model.
Live online course · March–April 2027
Eight live sessions with the people running youth pathways in European academies. From the foundation phase to the first team, and a written pathway blueprint for your own academy at the end.
Registration opens soon · Early bird: first 8 seats at €297
The problem
Every coach runs their age group their own way. Squads fill up with players born in January. Individual plans live in a folder nobody opens. And at 18, the pathway simply stops. The players who come through are the ones who happened to walk in, and who happened to get the right coach.
At Sportrail we have spent ten years training coaches across Portugal and beyond. The academies that produce players consistently are not the ones with the most talent at 10. They are the ones with a system at every stage, and the individual player inside it.
The programme
Wednesdays at 21:00 CET (20:00 Lisbon / London), two hours live, recorded for 12 months.
Faculty to be announced
How to build a clear identity and a learning process that fits each phase: technical, tactical, physical and psychological, in one model.
Faculty to be announced
Creativity is what separates a finished player from a formatted one. How to design sessions that force fast decisions from the first ages.
Faculty to be announced
The German model explained from the inside, and what you can take from it into your own club.
Faculty to be announced
This is where players are won or lost. Technical, tactical and physical work in the critical window, with the individual inside the team.
Guest to be announced
Why your squads are full of January birthdays, what bio-banding can and can’t do, and how to protect the late developer.
Faculty to be announced
Individual development can’t live outside the team’s week. How to build it into collective planning so it survives a busy week.
Guest to be announced
What you can and can’t predict at 11, criteria by position, and how maturation distorts what scouts see.
Faculty to be announced
The hardest moment in a career. Preparing the jump technically, tactically, psychologically and emotionally.
What you leave with
Each session produces one section of The Academy Pathway Blueprint, a 10–14 page plan for your own academy. It is the document you put in front of a sporting director, or take into your next job interview.
Included: Game Model Canvas · Age-Group Curriculum Map · IDP Template · Relative Age Audit Sheet
Faculty
We name each member of faculty here as they confirm. Every session is taught by someone running or building a youth pathway today, not a career lecturer. Sessions 5 and 7 are taught by guest specialists, announced before the course starts.
Who it’s for
You are looking for a drill library or a weekend coaching refresher. There are good subscriptions for that. This is about how the whole pathway is built.
Investment
Registration opens soon · Early bird: first 8 seats at €297
Standard
€397
Early bird
€297
Academy Pack
€1,490
Prices in euros, VAT included where it applies. Max 30 coaches. Clubs can pay by invoice: info@sportrailfootball.com
Email us within 48 hours of the first session and we refund the full fee. No questions, no forms.
Questions
Every session is recorded and available for 12 months. The live time is 21:00 Central European Time, which is 20:00 in Lisbon and London, 15:00 in New York and 12:00 in Los Angeles. On 17 and 24 March the US has already moved its clocks and Europe has not, so those two sessions are at 16:00 in New York and 13:00 in Los Angeles.
You receive a Sportrail CPD Certificate for 30 hours. Whether it counts towards your national association’s revalidation depends on your association.
Coaches with at least a UEFA C or equivalent, working in or around an academy. Directors and coordinators get the most from the blueprint.
Yes, all sessions and materials.
Yes. The Academy Pack is designed for clubs, and we issue invoices. Email info@sportrailfootball.com if your club needs to pay by bank transfer.
Email us within 48 hours of the first session and we refund the full fee. No questions, no forms.
Questions? info@sportrailfootball.com