A selection of Fulham's former Academy players detail their experiences during and after their time at the Club.

Marcus Bettinelli in action for Fulham's youth team

“When I was 15/16 I went out and played amateur football on Saturdays and mid-week. To be honest, I hated it. But looking back, it set me up perfect. I came back to Fulham and played Academy football. It wasn’t easy but I had experienced tougher times at those clubs. I would advise any scholar to go and get games. When you are 15 or 16, the man’s game is a scary world. You have to get out there. I’m not sure other academies would have let me go out, and play in, in football terms, a harsh world.”

Marcus Bettinelli

Troy Brown playing for Exeter

“I was 18 and had been at Fulham for 11 years when they let me go. When they signed Chris Smalling, who played in my position, they said they could keep me on as a third year scholar, but it would be better for me to get out there and get a pro deal somewhere else. They said they'd no doubt that I'd have a career in the game. 

“They handled it well and I've had 11 years at six different clubs as a pro, but it was still a hell of a shock at the time. As I'd been there so long, all I saw was Fulham. That's how it gets you. Your club becomes your life and because it's so amazing to have got into the system in the first place, you don't see beyond that. That's human nature and you're bound to think like that when you're a teenager.

“But when I was at Fulham, the only person who'd consistently played first team football after coming through the youth system was Sean Davis - and if you didn't make it as a pro at that time there wasn't much of a pathway to a different life. Things have come on by leaps and bounds since then, though, particularly at Fulham. Things were just starting to change when I was there and now there's definitely a pathway for lads who don't make it.

“It so much depends on how you react, though. Academy lads shouldn't get too high with the highs or too low with the lows. That's so important.

“The things that helped me most were little things. I remember walking into the classroom at Motspur Park and seeing a sign saying ‘Talent is no substitute for hard work,’ and that always stuck with me. I'm not the most talented footballer, but I was always a grafter and an athlete, and seeing things like that gave me confidence to keep working hard, no matter what happened.

“Another thing that registered with me big time came when we were playing Chelsea U13s. Our coach told us to look around the pitches where the other age group sides were playing, and said: ‘Out of these six age group sides, only three lads will make it as pros.’ The way he said it wasn't that we were no good. He meant it as, ‘Listen, you guys - you've gotta be realistic about this...’

“As horrible as that was then, it always stuck with me and made me concentrate at school and on what I wanted to do. I was still stunned on the day they let me go, but they took me up to the Exit Trials and eight or nine clubs got onto me after I'd played there, as Fulham had said would happen.

“However shocked you are on the day, being let go isn't the end. That's so important for lads to understand. Fulham left me in good shape for moving on and doing what I've done since. I started a building surveyor's degree 18 months ago and that should set me up in my next career and for the rest of my life. Fulham is a club that gets it right.”

Troy Brown

Stephen Humphrys comes on for his Fulham debut against Derby County

“When I was out on loan, I was constantly speaking to Huw [Jennings, Academy Director], Lee [Hagger, Head of Player Care], but most importantly Steve Wigley [Head of Academy Coaching], he was massive. If I was going through a rough patch he’d ring me a couple of times a week, help me through it, guide me. From then on it was liking speaking to my uncle. Sean [Cullen, Education Manager] helped me a lot too and I still call him Sir when I see him! At Motspur Park, it didn’t matter whether you were doing well or struggling, you were treated equally.”

Stephen Humphrys

Tyrone Cameron

“I was released by Fulham, must be around 2010. I’m Deputy Safeguarding Lead for the school. That’s safeguarding 950 pupils. I’m also a pastoral leader, and I have a team for that too. Obviously, everything we do is for the children, but the parents need support too. I was at FFC from 10 to 18. I look at my time there, and Lee [Hagger], and the coaches, and everybody there, were very professional. They always did the right thing. I’ve taken parts of that into my role here. I know from my time at FFC that when a kid transgresses from year 6 to year 7, I know that that is a whole new environment for those kids. I hope, in a way, I’m still spreading the Fulham methods.”

Tyrone Cameron, Assistant Designated Safeguarding Lead and Pastoral Team Lead, Curwen Primary School

Josh Lukwata

“I'd been at Fulham for nine years when I heard by chance that I was likely to be released. I was 18, it was six months before I should have heard, and I was stunned. I asked for a week off just to get away from things and forget about football. When I came back, Lee [Hagger] encouraged me to keep carrying on, which I did. Once you've got over the shock you can't turn up and do less than your best. That's so important.

“But Fulham were letting me go because I still wasn't tall enough to be a goalkeeper - and then Bristol Rovers, Crystal Palace and Leicester told me the same thing when I went for trials with them, so I knew things were coming to an end. 

“Then I got an amazing break. I was losing interest in football, but the League of Football Education [LFE] had got me three months at a Swedish club, and the lad I flat-shared with there produced music. His thing was producing beats and I just found it natural to put words to his beats and we worked on songs throughout the three months. He said I was good, that I'd nothing to lose and should switch to music full time.

“That did it. Everything clicked into place when he said I had musical talent. It makes such a difference when somebody sees something in you while you're still coming to terms with not making it in football. As soon as I got back to England I started looking for a studio and listening to instrumentals I could put words to.

“My confidence was picking up and I met good people in music, people who showed me how to go about things and who said I should take my time, just like the Fulham staff had said. Then, one day I was listening to an instrumental and the song Mona Lisa came into my head.

“Straightaway, I recorded it on my phone and when I put a clip of me singing it on social media it went viral - so far it's had 363,000 views on GRM Daily and 2.7 million listeners on Spotify.

“Now I do regular studio sessions and I'm going to university to take a popular music course so I can produce my own stuff.

“Looking back, I learnt more from football than I realised at the time and I don't regret anything. Music and football are very similar - you have to discipline your hunger for success in both of them and not get dragged down by your bad days. We all have bad days - whatever we're working at - and you need two or three close friends who'll back you up when things are rough. That's vital.

“It takes a while to get your self-belief going when you start something new, but having the right people around you means that what you learnt in football can help you find what's right for you - and it may have been the right thing for you all along. Football taught me a lot of things that I needed, not only in music but in life. It just took me time to realise that and now I can see what I truly got from the game."

Josh Lukwata, musician

Jordan Wilson playing for Fulham's youth side alongside Chris Smalling

“I didn't know what I wanted to do when Fulham let me go. I was 19, I'd only wanted to be a footballer, I'd never thought past football, and I was stunned.

“I stopped playing and I battled with depression for a time. Like most people who are let go, I didn't want anything to do with the game. But I couldn't stay in that state for ever and when I started thinking what to do and what I was good at, well, I had to be honest with myself - it was still football and fitness! There was no getting away from it. So I took a training course to become a qualified personal trainer and, after a while, I started playing semi-pro at Tooting and Mitcham.

“Playing semi-pro made me want to get back into the game full-time, but it didn't happen. Whether that was because scouts didn't pay much attention to non-league at the time or they thought I'd fallen behind the standard for 19-year-olds, I don't know.

“But Tooting & Mitcham had a gym that was open to the public and when I got my training qualification the owner offered me a coaching job in the gym. I snapped his hand off!

“After a while, I felt the gym wasn't working as well as it could. It was community-based but many local people didn't know about us and there was a lot of competition from other gyms, so I put a proposal to the owner. 

“He went for it, we started advertising and got over 350 new members in six weeks, partly because we reduced our rates so they were lower than our competitors, but also because word spread about the individual attention we gave people. 

“That was in 2013 and since then we've run lots of specialised projects - we've worked with young offenders, people who've got mental health problems, teenagers with special education needs, older people who don't have any physical outlets, anything that helps the community. A boxing project we ran for four years was similar to football apprenticeships and led to one lad getting into Loughborough University, which was a fantastic achievement for someone from his background.

“We're constantly looking for ways of using fitness to help people change their lives and we also cater for people who just want to get fit - so all our work is built around what's right for the individual. It's very challenging but very rewarding and I think what I learnt at Fulham has come to fruition in a different way than me having a professional football career.

“I've kept in touch with Fulham staff while I've been trying to build things up at Mitcham and they've been fantastically helpful. I didn't realise it at the time but had I not been in football and travelled around clubs and met all the different types of people I met in the game, I'd never have been able to do what I've done since. Fulham gave me the basis for everything I'm doing now.”

Jordan Wilson, Coach, Tooting & Mitcham FC

Alex Smith in a pre-season friendly at AFC Bournemouth

“It brought back a lot of memories, returning to Motspur Park. I was really happy there. It reminded me of all the things that have got me here now: discipline, hard work, you get back what you put in. But just as importantly, respect for your peers, thinking about how they might feel.”

Alex Smith, Teaching Assistant, South East London