GLASGOW HERALD

Land of opportunity for talented young footballers is over pond

Montrose or Manhattan? As a 21-year-old, Christopher Ewing chose the latter option and has never looked back. It is now seven years since Ewing, a former apprentice footballer at Motherwell under Alex McLeish and a Scotland schoolboy international, traded in part-time penury in the Scottish lower divisions for a life-changing odyssey in the United States. An athletic scholarship at Adelphi University in New York offered him the opportunity to study for a degree and develop his football talents in front of sizeable crowds in the NCAA Division One. He is not the first Scot to fulfil his sporting and academic potential across the pond.

Beneficiaries of the athletic scholarship program in the US include Scotland international David Weir and golfer Colin Montgomerie, while the American sportsmen and women who have benefited from the US system's ability to dovetail sporting development with academic achievement are legion.

Now based in Paris, Ewing, originally from Pollok, is dedicated to spreading the gospel. With a degree in sports management behind him, he is now seeking to offer talented young sportsmen and women the opportunity to attain athletic scholarships across the pond. Ewing's story has particular resonance for young Scottish footballers. A list of 191 have been released from Scottish clubs over the past couple of weeks, many of whom would not consider further education as a viable option.

"I talk to universities and they receive hundreds of DVDs and CVs every week," he said. "Logistically, it is not possible to sift through them all. My company vets them to make sure that applicants have the minimal academic and athletic requirements. I have been through the collegiate system, and I am a qualified SFA coach too, so I have the credibility.

"My experience is in football, but there is a huge market for sports such as golf, athletics, swimming, tennis and others. Football is actually one of the more difficult sports to get awarded a scholarship in because it is open to interpretation as to how good a player someone else thinks you are. In golf a player has a handicap, in athletics you have recorded times, so it is easier to judge."

As a promising teenage footballer, Ewing had high hopes of making a decent living out of the game. He represented Scotland at under-16 and18 levels and was on Motherwell's books before the club dropped the bombshell that he would be released. Spells at Dumbarton and Stranraer followed, but he could feel his ambitions slipping away. At the same time, he started a degree at Glasgow University, but found it hard to combine study with football. "It just wasn't happening for me," he continued.

"I started to look for some part-time work. I had four Highers and I went to Glasgow University for a year, but I wanted to continue playing football at the highest level possible. I looked into the US system and won a scholarship to the States. In the States you are able to fulfill your potential on the sports field as well as the classroom. In Scotland, and anywhere else in Europe, it's very difficult to achieve both those things. I don't think there are enough schemes to help young footballers, in particular. Young men put their heart and soul into football and are often left with nothing."

Ewing had been to New York in 1994 to watch his cousin Tommy Coyne play for the Republic of Ireland against Italy in the World Cup. It not only planted the seed of his future decision to study there, but proved a cathartic moment in the development of football or soccer in the States. "Since the World Cup in 1994, the standard of coaching has progressed a lot," he said.

"The top teams in the NCAA Division One, where I played, could easily compete at a good level in Scotland. Anyone who is on a sports scholarship represents their university and, in my case, I trained five times a week. The university leagues are just underneath the professional leagues in America and players are often drafted from there into Major League Soccer.

"A lot of my teammates were from outwith the States - Israel, Germany, Sweden, Argentina, Colombia; it was very multi-national. There are better facilities in the States than at some of the professional clubs in Scotland. At Tampa University we were sponsored by adidas and had gates of 3000 at some games. If we were playing in Alabama, we would fly there and fly back. American Football games at places like the University of Michigan can attract crowds of 110,000 for a college game. College sport is huge in America."

Ewing completed his degree at the University of Tampa in Florida and it is his qualification in sports management which has provided the basis for his future career. Although the sporting side of a scholarship is perhaps the most alluring, he is at pains to emphasise the even greater benefits of attaining a degree at the end of it. "The most important thing is that it is an education and you gain an internationally-recognised degree.

"I did a sports management degree, which doesn't exist in Scotland. It was a business degree with an emphasis on sport and involved things like stadium management and sports consultancy. When you start a degree in Scotland, it is hard if you want to switch to something else. It is a lot more flexible in the States. You finally choose the degree programme when you are 18 months to two years into the course."

From Pollok to Paris via Motherwell, New York or Tampa, Ewing's experiences could now open up opportunities for talented young sportsmen and women seeking new challenges.