A Super Story
Jamie Johnson FC is a great BBC iPlayer drama about the excitement, joy and challenges of being in a Premier League academy. The club "Hawx United" has been invented for the series, but the storyline is a pretty good reflection of what academies are like - and of children learning to become better people as well as better players.
Gabe Holt plays "Andrew"
Gabe has attended Stuart’s Futebol de Salao ("FDS") soccer school for 8 years. He plays "Andrew", one of the lead characters, who manages to get into the Hawx United academy but finds his friendship with best friend Christina is put under strain. Academies can be tough places!
Jamie Hughes plays "Tony"
You may recognise Jamie from our videos - he demonstrates quite a lot of the challenges. He's attended Stuart's FDS soccer school since he was 5 (see photo!). JJFC is his first experience of acting. Jamie says his football skills definitely helped him get the role, and he enjoyed the experience so much he would like to be a full-time actor when he's older.
Meet Melfield Academy!
In episode 3 of JJFC, Hawx Academy play against "Melfield Academy". Melfield have some silky skills and give Hawx a tough game - and are actually players from Stuart's grassroots team! If you look carefully in the photo you'll see Gabe and Jamie as well as Stuart.
Stuart's Thoughts
I'm very proud of the FDS soccer school contribution to JJFC. To have been able to give so many youngsters the chance to take part in a high profile TV series has been fantastic! On the set, I struck up a good friendship with the actor who plays Hawx Academy's assistant coach, and somehow have found myself with a minor role in the next series. I think I'm a better sports coach than actor though, so it doesn't signal a career change!
