Sports scholarships in US will be on offer via academy at Barnet and Southgate college

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Lucrative sports scholarships to US universities are among the potential prizes on offer from a new partnership between the US’s National Football League (NFL) and a further education college in north London.

After decades of mixed success in building a British fanbase for American football – including regular NFL games at Wembley stadium and a short-lived European league – the NFL’s latest move is to use London as a recruiting pool for talent.

From September, Barnet and Southgate college is partnering with the NFL to launch a programme for 16- to 18-year-olds combining full-time education with professional instruction by experienced American football coaches.

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“We are proud and excited to be the first UK college to offer this unique programme in partnership with the NFL,” said Darren Mepham, the chief executive of the college, which already hosts similar programmes including athletics, boxing and a football partnership with Tottenham Hotspur.

Up to 80 students are expected to participate, after applying to take part in trials via the academy’s website. Students selected will be expected to enrol in A-level, BTec, NVQ and personal training courses.

For the time being the academy is open to men only, and lists the physical attributes required in different positions, including “big, strong, smart” offensive linemen up to 2 metres (6ft 7in) tall and an “ideal weight” up to a massive 172kg.

Alistair Kirkwood, the NFL’s UK managing director, is careful to emphasise that the initiative is intended to be educational rather than simply a breeding ground for potential NFL players, acknowledging the slim possibility of it leading to a professional career.

“This is an opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of many young people, regardless of their experience of our sport. It is also an opportunity for us to create a pathway for players to get into the American college system and maybe even to the NFL,” Kirkwood said.

The NFL has little in the way of feeder teams, and instead relies on players developed through National Collegiate Athletic Association football, a hugely popular and ostensibly amateur competition where players receive free university tuition and in many cases graduate with degrees.

But London has already produced one remarkable success story for the NFL in the case of Efe Obada, who skipped college football after being spotted playing for an amateur team in the British American Football Association.

Obada was trafficked from the Netherlands to the UK as a child, and grew up sleeping rough in London. In 2014 he began playing for the London Warriors, and was signed by the Dallas Cowboys after a trial the same year. He now plays for the Carolina Panthers.

“To have the chance to pursue American football while receiving an education and other life-changing skills is an awesome opportunity. The values that the sport teaches go beyond the field and can help you make more of your life,” Obada said at the academy’s launch.

The academy will be supported by a roster of player ambassadors, including Jay Ajayi, a Super Bowl winner last year with the Philadelphia Eagles who was born in London but moved to Texas with his family when he was a child.

“American football changed my life and I have seen it change the lives of many others. I am looking forward to helping the students at the NFL academy reach their potential, whether it is as students or football players,” he said.

The move came as senior NFL management said the league wanted to open a fully fledged professional team in London by 2022, claiming: “The market is ready, the fans are ready, the stadiums are ready.”

The NFL’s previous attempts to maintain professional teams in the UK have failed, including the London Monarchs, which launched in 1991 and stuttered on until 1998 amid dwindling support.