Description

What does the pathway to professional football really look like? Honest stories for young players, parents and coaches.

Every week, host Jan Schmidt sits down with professional footballers, coaches, and people who have built their working lives around the game, and unpacks the journey behind it. The first touch. The rejections. The sacrifices nobody posts about. The moment it turned professional, and everything that came after.

From First Touch to First Team is made in Sydney and built for the Australian football landscape, but the guests come from everywhere: the A-League and A-League Women, the NPL, German football, the English Championship, the NWSL, European futsal, and professional leagues across Asia and the Middle East. Some of them made it. Some of them did not, and built a full-time career in football anyway. Both stories matter, and both are here.

Past guests include Will Kennedy, Marcus Younis, Kiara De Domizio, Alexander Fuchs, Daniel Georgievski, Erin Nayler, Zac Sapsford, Nicholas Olsen, Lloyd Owusu, Claudio Fabiano, Kealey Adamson, Sammy Iredale, Daniel Solsky, Brody Sams and Daniel Cappellaro.

Recurring themes: being cut or released as a young player, late development, the sacrifices families make, moving overseas as a teenager, choosing between an A-League academy and an NPL club, injury and coming back from it, identity and mental health in football, the gap between team training and individual development, and the many full-time careers in football that do not involve playing at all.

Whether you are a young player chasing the dream, a parent supporting one, or a coach shaping the next generation, this is the honest education and perspective that is hard to find anywhere else.

Jan and the Eleade Fussball coaches help young Australian players bridge the gap between team training and individual development, so they can reach the highest level possible. Individual and group sessions with a cognitive focus, game analysis, and performance testing, all built around the individual player. Through this podcast, we share the real journeys of players who have reached the top, so young footballers can see just how different every path can look.

New episodes every Monday.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/firsttouchtofirstteam/
Web: https://firsttouchtofirstteam.com