More than 120 young players from Championship club Burton Albion will use the world-class training facilities at St. George’s Park from next season.
The Under-18s will train and play all of their home matches at the national football centre while the U9s-U16s teams will also be based there.
And academy manager Dan Robinson sees this as an important step in their development.
He said: “If we want to develop Championship-level footballers then we have to have the facilities to support that development.
“As well as having the right surfaces to work on for the players, it will help us with our recruitment.
“We are surrounded by some big clubs and in order to compete we have to have some points of difference. Hopefully when they come and see where we are training it will be a big draw.
“This time last season the U18s were training at Marston’s, next year it will be all at St. George’s Park.
“On Wednesday nights we will be training our U9s-U16s in the indoor 3G at St. George’s Park – that is an unbelievable facility. You couldn’t get that kind of opportunity at most clubs.
“We also have a manager here in Nigel Clough and a football infrastructure where the opportunities are there for young players. If you are good enough and work hard this is a club where you will get opportunities in the first team.”
Becky Bullock, senior accounts manager at St. George’s Park, said: “We enjoy a great working relationship with Burton Albion and are pleased that we can now extend that association to the club’s younger age groups.
“As well as a world-class venue for elite athletes and the home of England teams, we also see St. George’s Park as being a vital part of the local community, so it’s a natural fit for Burton to be able to use our facilities for their training base.”
