Our future

The Premier League's Elite Player Performance Plan aims to develop more and better home-grown players.

Players and coaches who have come through the EPPP tell their experience.

Homegrown opportunities

Meet Harry Winks.

He is one of 99 homegrown players who have made their Premier League debut since the start of the 2016/17 season.

The 22-year-old came through the Tottenham Hotspur Academy and is now a key part of the first-team squad, appearing in 37 Premier League matches and now playing for England.

"It's good when you see people doing really well that have come through from the Academy, it's just a credit to the staff here and the obviously the boys themselves," he says. 

International success

Players from Premier League Academies and Premier League 2 were at the heart of England's youth success last year.

Everton's Dominic Calvert-Lewin, now part of the Toffees first-team squad, scored the winner to beat Venezuela in the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in South Korea.

England also claimed the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in India. Manchester City Academy product Phil Foden, pictured top, inspire a comeback victory over Spain in the final.

Man City's Lukas Nmecha scored the winner as England beat Portugal in the UEFA Under-19 European Championship final.

"There's a real feelgood factor about English football," said England Under-20 manager Paul Simpson. 

Youth education

Finlay Herrick is a member of the West Ham United Under-12s.

For Finlay, the Premier League Christmas Truce Tournament will live long in his memory.

He and his team-mates travelled to Belgium for the tournament after producing a campaign about First World War soldiers who lost their lives in the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917.

West Ham's Passchendaele tribute

"This tournament is the one I'm going to remember the most," Finlay says. "There's not many where you go over and then you learn things as well as play."

The Premier League is committed to developing players on and off the pitch. Its Education Department delivers a programme to support the technical, tactical, physical, mental, lifestyle and welfare development of all Academy players.

See: Finlay's story

Developing coaches 

Meet Natalie Henderson. She has always loved football.

Her enthusiasm for the game took her from being a volunteer at the Newcastle United Girls Centre of Excellence, to working at the club's Foundation, all the way to becoming Newcastle's first female academy coach.

And now she is a step closer to being an elite coach, armed with a Higher Education Diploma, thanks to the Premier League's Elite Coach Apprenticeship Scheme (ECAS).

The scheme looks to develop talented people at the clubs into elite coaches. It broadens their minds, sharing the secrets of success from other elite sporting environments as well as the business world and other disciplines, such as the arts.

"Some of these opportunities may sound strange but all have proved very significant for myself to learn from," Natalie says.

She is one of 110 coaches who have come through ECAS to develop the next set of stars.