The Wales FIFA Talent Academy

At the 2025 Women’s EURO in Switzerland, Wales’ senior side appeared at a major international tournament for the first time. In this conversation, FIFA High Performance Specialist Magret Kratz, FAW Technical Director Dr David Adams and FIFA Talent Coach Rachel Lever explain how they plan to establish the Dragons as a permanent fixture at the highest levels of the game, as well as how FIFA’s TDS programme is helping them spot and development more talent than ever before.

• The FAW has made a sustained, target investment in the women’s game that is beginning to bear fruit on the pitch.

• A comprehensive talent development infrastructure should both help you to identify talent and give you a pathway to bring players into the senior game.

• The transition from the junior ranks to senior professional football is the riskiest part of any talent development pathway. Managing it is the key to expanding your talent pool.

Part 1: How the Wales FIFA Talent Academy started
In 2020, as part of its TDS programme, FIFA audited the FAW’s talent development systems across men’s and women’s football. It found a women’s system that was build on a small, fragile ecosystem of grassroots players. In the first part of the presentation, Adams outlines how the FAW overhauled its system to increase contact hours for players, improve coaching, and give girls access to more competitive games to accelerate their development. These changes are now beginning to bring a new generation of players through the ranks.

Part 2: How the Wales FIFA Talent Academy has evolved
When Lever arrived in Wales, she began making radical changes to the structure of the youth system. As well as working to set up organised leagues below the top tier of Welsh domestic football, she was also instrumental in developing two regional academy structures (North and South).  The academies combine football with education, and smooth the transition to senior football or elite youth academies in England. The whole system emphasises quality over quantity, an ethos reflected in the fact that while there are currently just 12 under-14 players in the South Academy, all are supported by full-time coaches.

Part 3: Moving forward with the Wales FIFA Talent Academy
Having established a talent development pathway that can take girls all the way from U-9 level to senior football, the association is now looking to bolster the recently-established national academy leagues, and expand them to the U-11 and U-15 age groups. There is also potential to add an U-12 team to the high-performance Girls Regional Programme, thus giving promising youngsters more exposure to a high-performance environment earlier in their careers. Last but not least, there is a strong focus on developing more options for over-16s to make the challenging transition into the professional game. The overall aim is clear: to make sure the next generation of Dragons carry a threat on the biggest stage.

01:30
Dave, what was the vision for the programme? Was it your idea, or did the idea come from the board?

04:30
What is next for the academy, and how do you see it developing over the next few years?

07:30
Rachel, what has been your biggest challenge since coming to Wales?

09:10
The milestone event was an outstanding event. Rachel, you were instrumental in organising it. How do you feel about this event, looking back?