GCSE results tend to be the starting gun for a footballer’s career. At 16, that piece of paper releases them from compulsory education and into the footballing world they’ve chosen, full-time.
It’s often a release for ambitious footballers, who finally have all the time they need to spend at the training ground, working in the gym, doing video analysis and doing extras on the pitches after the main session has ended. Archie Gray is the prodigious talent going through that phase at Leeds United right now, but there has not been a scramble to bin the schoolbooks.
While the future looks increasingly exciting for Gray based on how he has played so far, as well as his family background, all of his eggs may not yet be thrown into the football basket. Just as he might be tempted to pour all of his time into Thorp Arch, Jesse Marsch says there is talk of more education for the 16-year-old, and he approves.
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“His family and him are committed to him educating himself,” he said. “He even talks about taking some of his A Levels, which I would fully encourage because a well-rounded human being is an important part of being a good footballer.”
The GCSE results themselves were impressive. Marsch opened up on Gray’s big reveal in front of the squad at Thorp Arch.
Back at the start of pre-season, Marsch had talked up Gray as more than just an under-21 flitting between groups. The head coach made it clear the teenager was a first-team player and proceeded to take him on tour to Australia.
While he is yet to appear for the senior side this season, Marsch reiterated how well Gray had settled into the group, to the extent he’s not seen as a kid on the fringes of the unit anymore.
“I asked him in front of the team and he said he got Bs and As, but he said Bs first, which made me think maybe more Bs than As,” he said. “Clearly, he's a bright kid.
“He was sick for a little bit, he didn't have Covid, but he had some sort of weird stomach intestinal flu or something. He’s still a big part of everything we do every day and he's such a great kid.
“It's a pleasure to have him around. It's not like you have a 16-year-old kid in the first team, he's one of the players. So it's a big compliment to him.”
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