We Make Footballers run weekly indoor and outdoor Football training for young people aged 4 through to 12 around the United Kingdom.
Sessions include Football training, holiday camps, one-on-one training, school training, birthday parties and more at over 42 venues including Brentside School overseen by Rory Mathers and his team.
They aim to make a huge difference by creating opportunities for young people. This includes voluntary coaching in their spare time. It’s more than just a job they really are passionate about getting young people involved in sport.
2022 on Beyond
We caught up with Rory to have a chat to him about where it all started and what’s his plans are for the future with the Ealing branch of We Make Footballers.
Since his early teens he has always wanted to eat sleep repeat football. Like many others up and down the country, the appeal started when he was young.
Playing football wasn’t enough, he ended up embarking on a career move to study Sport Science at University....
"I really enjoyed my time at Uni, however I always knew I wanted a career in coaching and my degree really wasn't helping me achieve that, so I decided to go and look for opportunities elsewhere and found a better opportunity for myself with Arsenal”
With his bags packed and passport at the ready, Rory jumped on a plane to head out to Australia to work with Arsenal Football Club.
Rory is well traveled in the football industry, working with many international clubs including Arsenal FC and Real Madrid as well as some more who are a bit closer to home – including Brighton and Hove Albion FC, Fulham FC, Watford FC and Brentford FC.
Rory has also worked with We Make Footballers at their Head Office - learning the ins and outs of what it takes to run the business. Drawing on all of this experience, Rory decided to take the leap and seek a franchise of his own with the help of an investor.
But then, the pandemic struck. Throwing all of Rory’s hard work and plans into limbo.
"During the first lockdown I ran weekly online football classes for all 4000 of our students across the Franchise network, these were filmed in my front garden and broadcast live on Instagram and Facebook every Saturday and Sunday for 3 months.”
He adds…
“When the restrictions started to ease we were allowed to have small group classes, with a maximum of 6 kids in each class. This lead to us having to divide our one hour classes for 30-45 kids into 6-8 individual classes….”
Despite the restrictions, Rory used this time away from the pitch to utilise his skills, knowledge and experience to get back out there and help change young people’s lives by keeping them active through sport.
Rory and the team are so good at what they do, demand has increased for football training, leading to extending existing training to more hours at Brentside since November 2021
There is Youth Football Training on Tuesday evenings from 6 pm - 7 pm (for 4 to 7-year-olds) and 7 pm - 8 pm (for 8 to 12-year-olds)
Saturday Youth Football Training sessions are from 9.30 - 10:30 am (for ages 8 to 12 years old) with the second session starting at 1030 - 11:30 am (for 4 to 7-year-olds) and now the extended 8-12 year Olds session from 12:30pm - 1:30pm
To find out more check out their websitehttps://www.wemakefootballers.com/ealing/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/WeMakeFootballersEaling/
Instagram - @WMF.Ealing
