Beauty of it Just Faded” The Harsh Reality of Academy Football

Keely Archbold has represented England at youth level but has decided to move onto another big stage and pursue a career in music.

After having never been interested in football until her teenage years, Keely Archbold has achieved an extraordinary amount during her five years in football. The former Wolverhampton Wanderers forward, moved to live in Cyprus age 11 and only played rugby, a sport in which she said: “I played because I was good at it, but I just didn’t enjoy it.” After three years of living on the ‘Island of love’, her family moved back to England and with Keely looking to play a new sport she toyed with the idea of playing football.

Having been scouted by Wolverhampton Wanderers after just one full season of football, everything looked up for the West Midlands starlet. And things continued to look up, with England’s head coach at the time selecting Keely to represent her country, an incredible achievement having only had two years of playing the game. With a reminiscent smile upon her face, she said: “I had gone from playing no football to representing my country in two years, it was just a crazy season for me but it felt amazing to be starting off my career.” accepted and this is where she felt her career would really kick on. Despite having the passion for music since a young age, the now singer/songwriter had never once thought she would leave football but this became the drive for her success, adjusting her chair to speak about her passion she said: “After finishing football, I wanted to try something I didn’t think was a possibility before, I met a lot of new people and I learnt a lot about university.”

Similarly to her time in football, Keely adored everything about the art of creating and performing, however things at Leeds Conservatoire ended abruptly, with Keely deciding to drop out after the first year. When explaining her choice to leave she said: “The beauty of music just started to become another chore as there was a lot of pressure on us all throughout the course, I understand that it was getting us ready for the real world and how a career in songwriting would be but I just felt myself in a writers block constantly because of the amount of pressure I felt.” As opposed to football, music is something which the 20 year old has continued to pursue after her year at university, with her staying in Leeds for another year working in a pub in which she also performed her songs, her smile widened as she said: “Whilst working there, I found that I could play and enjoy my music again without the pressure I had at uni but the year I spent in Leeds after university was a big eye opener for me as this was my first year living alone with very little money or career aspirations.”

However, five years and many goals later, Archbold decided that she wanted to stop playing football. She said: “ The reasons were just a mixture of everything, when I started playing for Wolves I believed that this was what I wanted to do for my life and my career, but probably by the third season the sport became more of a chore than a pleasure.”

With relief etched across her face, the former Wolves number 9 began to explain the importance of self care with regards to both your physical and mental well-being, something which she openly admits to having struggled with during her career. She said: “I don’t regret making the decision to stop football as it made me realise a big thing about myself and that I can’t physically be tied down to one thing and since I’ve left football I have had so much time for my other hobbies such as music, climbing, outdoor adventure, travelling and I have been able to explore and find out more about myself.”

After leaving the academy set up, Keely was looking to explore new opportunities in a different industry and with singing and songwriting being more of a hobby throughout her teenage years, she knew that this was something that she wanted to explore further. With an archive of old videos on Facebook of her singing and an audition for the X Factor, it seemed like she had too much talent to let go to waste. With a clear passion and desire to perform, her application to Leeds Conservatoire was

With little career aspirations in the UK and a passion for travelling, Keely has decided to take a huge leap of faith and explore yet another opportunity, teaching at a summer camp in America. With hopes to travel the world and perform her music worldwide, with dreams to gather enough inspiration to begin a project in which she wants to work on to further her music career.