Football's last chance saloon - the Britons keeping their dreams alive in Sweden
Andrew Mills was released by Macclesfield Town before climbing the leagues in Sweden to sign for Ostersunds FK
What started as a trickle nearly a decade ago, with two young English players attempting to revive their dreams, now sees a stream of about 30 young players from EFL clubs head to Sweden each year.
The success story of Ostersunds FK and their intrepid coach, former York City winger Graham Potter, has been well reported but there is a wider story to be told involving British players dotted across Sweden, at all levels of the game.
Three of Potter's squad, Jamie Hopcutt, Doug Bergqvist and Andrew Mills, were all also part of a scheme managed by League Football Education (LFE) to give discarded players a second chance overseas.
What is Erasmus+ ?
Erasmus was established as a student exchange programme in 1987.
It provides grants across education, training, youth and sport for people to go on work placements in other European countries.
Funded through Erasmus+, LFE sends players across the North Sea to effectively take up extended trial periods of 12 weeks with Swedish clubs.
Remarkably for players discarded by clubs in the UK, over 35% of those that go to Scandinavia have earned professional contracts in the past five years.
These are players let go by the likes of AFC Wimbledon, Doncaster Rovers, Fleetwood, MK Dons and Wolverhampton Wanderers, to name a few - with LFE estimating that 50-60 British players are still out there.
The programme has prospered so much that LFE recently started a similar initiative in Spain working with Getafe.
Andrew Mills was released by Macclesfield Town before climbing the leagues in Sweden to sign for Ostersunds FK
What started as a trickle nearly a decade ago, with two young English players attempting to revive their dreams, now sees a stream of about 30 young players from EFL clubs head to Sweden each year.
The success story of Ostersunds FK and their intrepid coach, former York City winger Graham Potter, has been well reported but there is a wider story to be told involving British players dotted across Sweden, at all levels of the game.
Three of Potter's squad, Jamie Hopcutt, Doug Bergqvist and Andrew Mills, were all also part of a scheme managed by League Football Education (LFE) to give discarded players a second chance overseas.
Erasmus was established as a student exchange programme in 1987.
It provides grants across education, training, youth and sport for people to go on work placements in other European countries.
Funded through Erasmus+, LFE sends players across the North Sea to effectively take up extended trial periods of 12 weeks with Swedish clubs.
Remarkably for players discarded by clubs in the UK, over 35% of those that go to Scandinavia have earned professional contracts in the past five years.
These are players let go by the likes of AFC Wimbledon, Doncaster Rovers, Fleetwood, MK Dons and Wolverhampton Wanderers, to name a few - with LFE estimating that 50-60 British players are still out there.
The programme has prospered so much that LFE recently started a similar initiative in Spain working with Getafe.
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