Ben Osborn interview: Sheffield United midfielder on going from playing in the Premier League to coaching kids | Football News

Sheffield United’s clash with Nottingham Forest will be taking Ben Osborn back down to the east Midlands. But even if the game wasn’t happening, he would likely have been heading back towards his old neck of the woods on Tuesday night anyway.

Osborn is the type of character who is helping footballers shed an image they have never deserved. At just 27, he has founded and helps to run his own grassroots coaching school, working with kids in the Nottingham and Derby area to develop their game. And when his schedule allows, he will be out on the pitches himself working with kids on a Monday and Tuesday night.

It is something that brings him real joy, even when the kids he is teaching are poking fun at him over a defeat at the weekend – with his Forest roots meaning it is often something he has to put up with at both ends of Brian Clough Way!

« I get stick off the Derby fans, and the Forest fans too! » he tells Sky Sports. « I get stick off most of the kids to be honest, they’re definitely not shy in it! Especially if we lose at the weekend or if I don’t play too great. There are some Sheffield United fans too, and others, it’s a good mix.

« It was pretty mad last year. You would be playing in the Premier League against Chelsea or Liverpool, then on Monday I’d be down there coaching. The kids would love it, asking me all sorts of questions about what it was like to be playing against Mo Salah or whoever. »

Elite Football Development was founded in 2019 by Osborn and one of his old team-mates, Jack Andrews. It began in Nottingham, and they have recently expanded it to Derby with aspirations to take it further afield. Their aim is to provide academy-level coaching to kids, but without the strains that academy life can place on young players.

« I had the idea because I realised that when you get past a certain age as a player, about 18, and get thrown into a first team, everything all of a sudden becomes about preparing for the next game, » says Osborn. « You don’t really have the time to work on your skills and technique and stuff like that, you have to get that done before then.

« When you’re younger you have the time to develop those things – your shooting, crossing, dribbling and passing etc – and get those skills nailed down for when you’re older.

« But it can be easier said than done, because kids want to come and play games and be competitive in football matches. The idea was to set it up as academy-level coaching for grassroots footballers, and for kids who have been released from academies to still have high-level coaching, but away from the pressurised environment that an academy can be.

« We get kids in who have just been released by a club and they’ve lost their love for the game. First and foremost, we want to get that back and make sure they are enjoying it. It’s the first thing we ask after every session, to make sure they’ve had fun. And the feedback from parents has been really positive.

« We do want to see them progress as well. That’s something I’ve been particularly proud of over the last couple of years, seeing kids come on. Maybe one day, we’ll have a success story that someone who comes through our school goes into an academy and maybe makes a career in the game.

« But we don’t ask the kids to be great at football. We just want them to have the attitude that they want to learn. It’s always a great moment when we send them away with something to practice and they come back in and show us they can do it. It gives them something to focus on. »

Coaching kids and helping run a business would be difficult enough on its own – to do it alongside balancing a professional football career is a different kettle of fish altogether.

But Osborn’s passion for coaching and working with the kids means that once he started, there was no looking back.

« I’ve always been interested in coaching, even when I was young and just getting into the first team at Forest, » he says. « We had a high turnover of managers there, so it was always fascinating to see when a different one would come in and how they would do things.

« I was halfway through my B Licence and an old team-mate of mine who was a full-time coach had the idea of getting me involved in a couple of sessions. We put on some free ones to see what the turnout would be like, and it was really good.

« I was at Forest at the time and we set it up in Nottingham, and two years later it was still running every Monday night and it has grown bit by bit. We now have seven schools in Derby and Nottingham and we’ve started an extra night in Derby.

« There’s a lot of hoops to jump through that you don’t realise. You go into it wanting to coach, but there’s much more to it than that. It’s a case of trial and error and learning as we go. Anyone who has started their own business will know that it takes a lot of work and sometimes there aren’t enough hours in the day. But hopefully, the hard work will pay off in the long term.

« I’ve moved to Sheffield United now, but thankfully it’s not too far to travel back. I’ve just got to manage when I can get back and help out. If I have a midweek game, I can’t make any of the sessions, but if I have a free week I’ll always try and make both. Even if I’m not there, I’m generally designing the sessions for the kids. »

Osborn still has a long way to go in his career as a player, but he is already taking huge strides in his journey if he does ever choose to move into full-time coaching or management after he retires. Not that he is getting ahead of himself.

« I try not to think too far ahead, » he says. « At the moment it’s just a progression and I’m more than comfortable coaching kids. But I am starting my A Licence, and that’s coaching academy kids and under 15s. That’s the next step, managing 11v11s and youth teams. »

In the short term, he could well be pitting his wits on the touchline against Sheffield United team-mate Billy Sharp. The striker has a similar school himself in the Steel City, and there has been discussion of a head to head.

« We’ve been talking about my team playing his team and us managing on the sidelines, » says Osborn. « I think it will happen soon! »

But he does, with a smile, admit that any future in management would require some work on his temperament first.

« We’ve only done a few games where I’ve been on the sidelines. I found myself almost shouting at the referee in an under-13s friendly game! But I quickly managed to take a step back and be like, ‘what am I doing?!’

« I can’t imagine what it would be like to do it properly. It’s definitely something I’d have to work on if I did go into management. »

Management or otherwise, you get the feeling that Osborn will be a huge success in whatever he does decide to do in the future. Just like the values he teaches the kids he coaches, he clearly possesses the work ethic and motivation to go a long way.