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.
