A pensioner shuffles around the perimeter of a west London playing field and Chris Ramsey drops to one knee. “Not everybody makes it, but I’d say a third of players get there on a second chance,” Ramsey concludes to his audience of a dozen attentive young men.
The message of hope is a welcome one for a group of now former academy footballers, attending a pilot residential training camp hosted by Behind the White Lines. The guest appearance by Ramsey, the former Swindon, Southend and Brighton full-back, follows that of the former Crystal Palace winger Yannick Bolasie a day before. Both were invited by the former England international Steven Caulker. BTWL is his brainchild, into which he has poured heart, soul, and money. “At 26, I found myself without a club,” he says when asked why. “I didn’t know where to go, who to turn to, who I was even. I had no identity. It took a long time for me to get my head around that.”
