Emile Heskey on Youth Development and Jaden's Move Abroad

Emile Heskey has watched the cycle repeat too many times to stay quiet.

His son Jaden, a powerful winger on Manchester City’s books, has chosen to leave English football in search of first-team minutes. For Emile, that decision says as much about the state of youth development in England as it does about his son’s ambition.

Speaking to GOAL, in association with Premier League betting site BetWright, the former England striker laid it out in blunt terms: if you’re good enough at 17 or 18 and still nowhere near a senior debut, you have to look elsewhere.

“At 17, 18, if you're ready to play first-team football and you're not getting that and you inevitably won't get it in England, you've got to go somewhere where there's a proven track record. Germany looks like there's a proven track record,” he said.

Germany again. The same path Jadon Sancho took. The same league that has repeatedly opened its doors to young English talent while Premier League clubs stockpile prospects and send them back to the Under-21s.

Heskey cannot understand why it keeps happening.

“Our youth system, as in youth international, we've got some fantastic players. The Germans have seen that time and time again in the players. Why aren't we given the opportunity in England?”

He rattled through the pattern. English youngsters leave for Germany, Belgium, France. At the same time, Premier League clubs spend big on 20 and 21-year-olds from those same leagues — players England’s own kids have already faced, and often beaten, at youth international level.

“We shouldn't necessarily have to go to Germany, we shouldn't necessarily have to go to Belgium, we shouldn't necessarily have to go to France. That's what's happening. We're buying players in England from France, from Germany, at 20, 21. We've got 20, 21-year-olds who we've been playing against them on a regular basis, international level, and beating them.”

That 2000-born crop is never far from his mind. The one that included Sancho, Phil Foden and Marc Guehi. A group widely regarded as the best in Europe at youth level. Yet several of them had to fight their way out of elite academies just to play.

“And being seen as that crop with Sancho, Phil Foden, that crop, I think it was Marc Guehi as well, was seen as the best in Europe. But we've not been giving the opportunities. Marc Guehi was at Chelsea, he didn't get a chance at Chelsea, he had to leave.”

Others from that generation are now established in their home leagues. English players, Heskey argues, are too often stuck.

“But others are all getting a chance in their own respective country. And I get it because in England we've got the biggest league and possibly the best league. But our kids are never going to get the chance.”

For him, this is personal as well as structural. Jaden turns 21 soon. Emile was already deep into his senior career at that age.

“My son [Jaden] is 20, 21 soon. At 22 I left for Liverpool after playing five seasons [at Leicester]. So we've got too many kids now who are being, I wouldn't say being held back, but they're missing out on important years of learning at 18, 19, 20 to play in the 21s, which gives you nothing.”

He does see one bright spot: the EFL Trophy, where academy sides can test themselves against senior lower-league teams. But that, he says, is nowhere near enough.

“Apart from the EFL Trophy, which is good. I like that, I like it a lot, but that's two games.”

So Jaden Heskey goes abroad to prove himself, another English talent choosing the Bundesliga pathway over the Premier League waiting room. The question now is whether England’s biggest clubs are prepared to change, or whether more of their brightest prospects will keep boarding the same flight out.