Student looks back on 2025 UCFB Future Leaders Conference at St George’s Park

On Friday, April 11, third year and postgraduate students at UCFB were given the outstanding opportunity to attend a Future Leaders Conference at St George’s Park, the home of England’s National Football Teams. 

For third year BA (Hons) Football Business student Dylan Boorer, this was one of his standout experiences during his time at UCFB, with his academic journey slowly coming to an end. Read below what he had to say…

After a coach journey from the iconic Wembley Stadium to St George’s Park, we were welcomed by BBC Radio and Television presenter Mark Clemmit. This is where we were informed of the agenda for the day, beginning with an official tour of England’s training camp.

The tour gave us exclusive access to the elite-level facilities, including a number of pristine pitches, the fully equipped gym, the Hilton Hotel, and even the iconic swimming people. I recognised so many different areas that I’ve seen on the national teams’ social media and YouTube, where England’s top footballing talent spend time when they are training for future games and competitions. 

The next hour for me came an engaging public speaking session led by Mark Clemmit once again, who has over 25 years’ experience in presenting and reporting. Clemmit delivered an interactive session where he went through his top 25 tips for presenting, getting students involved throughout. Personally, this was a great way to reflect on ourselves, thinking about what makes us different from everyone else, and what skills we can develop to grow our confidence when delivering and presenting in front of others. 

There were also different one-hour sessions being delivered at the same time as this. Students were also given the option of attending, a session with Simon Houston who talked through different game insights for coach development, or an insightful talk with Kevin Sanders who shared his own career development as well as the future plans for St George’s Park.

When joining back together as one big group, I was asked to come on stage by Clemmit, who wanted to ask me about my experiences during summit trips to Miami and Toronto where I had met him before. Mark Clemmit is involved in every summit trip and has the responsibility of interviewing all the guest speakers that we get to meet and listen to. I felt very comfortable on stage speaking about my experiences on these outstanding trips, reflecting on a couple of the best weeks of my life! 

The next part of the day involved a League Managers Association panel discussion with former England and Arsenal women’s player Rachel Yankey OBE, former England player and West Ham captain Matthew Upson, and Thomas Tuchel’s new assistant manager for the England men’s team, Anthony Barry. The discussion involved lots of information on their journey in the world of football, including the ups and down that have come with their successful careers. 

Anthony Barry has had an outstanding five years in coaching being involved in footballs biggest clubs and national teams such as Chelsea, Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, Bayern Munich, and now England. A key takeaway from what he addressed about his success is to believe you are good enough and to understand that you are rewarded for a reason. This advice was delivered to students when he addressed being in the same room as the likes of Frank Lampard and Michael Carrick when completing his coaching course.

Rachel Yankey revealed how she cut her hair the same as her male friends when she was younger, in order to play football in the boys team, whilst keeping it a secret from the other players! This sacrifice really made me understand the passion and dedication she had towards football, and demonstrated why she ended up having such a successful career in the sport! 

Personally, it was a special moment to see Matthew Upson in the panel discussion. When I went to my first ever West Ham game, Upson was captaining the side; never did I think I would see him over 15 years later at a university event, sat in the front row of the conference room at St George’s Park speaking about his career. I particularly liked his advice on enjoying our successes in our career and not taking life and our jobs too seriously. This is when we could be too focused on our next steps and goals that we want to achieve, but not taking full satisfaction of our achievements along the way. 

To cap off the day, we had the chance to call England Women’s top all-time goalscorer and Euro 2022 champion Ellen White. Here we had the chance to hear about the special moment when England beat Germany 2-1 in extra time to win England their first major title since 1966, as well as other successes in her career in football. White even showed us her Euro 2022 winners medal and her golden boot for England. Students were given the opportunity to ask White questions, where she gave her opinions on the development of women’s football and the upcoming players to look out for in England’s Women’s Team. 

The day capped off with a chance to have a drink and network with fellow students from both campuses, which was a great way to make new connections and reflect on our day. 

With three weeks left until I finish my degree course, this event was a really great way to finish off my academic year. I gained lots of advice from the different discussions that was held, and had really encouraged me to think about the next steps in my career and what I would like to achieve. 

A big thank you goes out to the UCFB Employability and Career Planning team, Simon Fitzjohn and Ashvinder Virdee for their organisation and support in making the event such a memorable one.

Find out more about the extraordinary opportunities granted to UCFB students during their time studying.

You can also view a UCFB prospectus to kick off your own dream career in the football and wider sports industry.