Non-league football is full of potential starts, but very few league clubs take a chance on them.

The limelight has been firmly on Jamie Vardy this season and his rise to fame, showing there is non-league players out there good enough to play higher up the football league pyramid.

Basingstoke manager Jason Bristow said, ‘we have several players that could make the step up to the first team’ and ‘if given the chance could play football at a higher level’. Suggesting a chance is all players need when down the lower leagues.

Charlie Austin is another to progress from his everyday job, as a bricklayer, to a professional footballer. He managed to score 18 goals in 36 games while in the top division of English football for Queens Park Rangers, having made his way up from semi- professional Poole Town. As well as being called by England showing his growth onto the radar of many Premier League clubs.

Vardy started out at Stockbridge Town currently in the 8th tier of the football league pyramid, before he moved up to Halifax Town, Fleetwood Town and then Leicester City where he has made a name for himself equaling the record for scoring in consecutive games. He has also capped by England on four occasions.

Are there more Jamie Vardy’s in the non-league?

It may seem Vardy is a one off. It may seem he is one of very few to make it the Premier League. But the likes of Charlie Austin, Joe Hart and Chris Smalling have all made successes of their careers coming from non-league football. Suggesting there is simply too many one-offs. There are players who are under the radar of the limelight, but have still made into arguably the best league in the world, Harry Arter came from Woking while Lee Tomlin, also at Bournemouth, made it from Rushden & Diamonds.

Bristow added that, ‘technically players can impress but maybe physically they need to develop’. Players improve at different stages and for some that is after they have been released and are making their living playing non-league football.

The National league system has 58 leagues, it would seem implausible to think there are not more potential stars out there.

The Basingstoke Town boss believes that the non-league doesn’t get the credit it deserves for the level of football played, ‘non-league football is technically better than a lot of people give it credit for’.

A second chance at football

Non-League football is also the catalyst for player’s second chances at the game after many are released by big clubs. Philip Rogerson, Chairman at Guiseley AFC in the Conference, says that clubs ‘offer young players who have been released by league clubs and give them the chance to recreate their careers and rebuild their confidence’.

Rogerson believes that more players aren’t bought by Premier League and Championship clubs because ‘they hover up any kid over 6’ and put them ‘into their money making academies’. As well that playing lower down the leagues helps ‘with the physical side of the game’ and ‘to learn different aspects of how to win football matches’.

A problem with the system?

Possibly the Premier League and Championship clubs make their own problems of finding the next gem, like Jamie Vardy or Chris Smalling. Due to the amount of youngsters that are signed on a young age then released when they don’t improve and develop quickly enough.

Slough Town’s Chairman, of the Southern League Premier Division, Steve Easterbrook believes that, ‘pro clubs sign up too many youngsters’ and then ‘over the years release them which can have quite an impact on the player’.

In addition, of all the players signed up into the academies, 98% fail to become pro according BBC programme ‘Footballers, Sex, Money: What’s gone wrong?’ Showing that the money spent on bringing the players abroad isn’t the solution. A prime example is at Tottenham Hotspurs, after Gareth Bale left, £105million was spent on players from overseas yet Harry Kane brought up through the youth system is possibly there best player this season.

Many players when released make their way down the leagues, if they even still have the hunger to play, after, in some cases, years of playing at professional clubs with dreams of making it before having it taken from them in seconds.

This means many players are lost in the system and mature and develop slower than others, with very few players coming into the first team of top clubs after being the youth system for more than three years.

Harry Kane, Jack Wilshere, Tim Krul and Ross Barkley are examples of those that have made it onto the main stage and have kept their place without being permanently dropped or sent out on loan, but there are very few. Showing the clear gap between the academy and the first team and is a main reason many youngsters are sent out on loan to non-league teams to gain experience.

Showcasing in plain site that more clubs should be investing in non-league players.