Nick Loftus will be sat in the Royal Box when England take on Finland at Wembley on Tuesday night.
And, when he sees England’s interim Head Coach Lee Carsley walk out to take his place in the dugout for his first home match in charge, his memory will wander to one of the many highlights of his career in schools’ football across Wolverhampton and the West Midlands.
Back in early 1990, Loftus, now 66, who would later spend 16 years as Education & Welfare Officer with Wolves Academy, was managing the West Midlands Under-16 schools’ team in a semi-final against South Glamorgan.
They won 1-0, the only goal of the game scored by the team’s hard-working midfielder, a certain Lee Carsley, from Birmingham.
The final, against Avon at Ashton Gate, ended in defeat. And while the teamsheet from the day shows many of the opposition team ultimately graduating through from schools’ football to the professional ranks, Carsley was one of the few from the Midlands’ team to make the grade.
He went on to excel, particularly with Derby County and Everton and also, after qualifying via his Cork-born grandmother, winning 40 caps for the Republic of Ireland against whom his new England opportunity kicks off in Dublin on Saturday evening.
“Lee was always a very hardworking player with a great mentality and is the standout to emerge from that team,” says Loftus, whose nickname of ‘Lofty’ has followed him throughout his career.
“I really enjoyed managing him.
“I think he played every county game that season, and of that group, was the one who had most success, both at club level and internationally.
“It’s also nice that when I used to bump into him from time to time when I was at Wolves, he would remember back to those days and his experiences of playing for the county.
“I last saw him when he was under-21 manager at Manchester City, and it’s great to see how well he has done in his coaching career to progress through to England and now the senior team.”
Carsley isn’t the only connection who will be familiar to Loftus when he heads to Wembley on Tuesday night.
Joleon Lescott, now an assistant to Carsley within the England set-up, had progressed through to the senior Wolves side by the time Loftus joined the Academy in 2004, but Morgan Gibbs-White, hoping to make his Three Lions debut over the coming days, was very much coming through the ranks.
Indeed, Loftus was very much involved in helping Gibbs-White move his education to Thomas Telford School from the school in Stafford where he had spent his formative years.
So, plenty to ponder as he takes his seat at Wembley, for the first time – and with understandable pride – since being appointed as Chairman of the English Schools’ Football Association.
Reaching such a key and influential role within the game is just rewards for a proud Wulfrunian whose entire career has been steeped in a healthy combination of football and education.
Loftus, inspired by his own experiences of enjoying school football tours as a player, became a PE teacher at Valley Park, Willenhall Comprehensive and Moreton Schools, alongside being an assistant and manager for various squads for Wolverhampton and West Midlands Schools.
As a supporter, his Wolves journey began a year after England’s World Cup triumph of 1966, loving watching the likes of Derek Dougan, Kenny Hibbitt and Dave Wagstaffe, whilst he also trod the boards as a player himself, initially as a goalkeeper but later as a wide midfielder.
Loftus was originally forced to play rounders when his junior school, Holy Trinity C of E in Heath Town, didn’t run any football teams – although they do now, but his secondary school, Ward’s Bridge – certainly did.
They also had a proud tradition of delivering an excellent sports’ day, which featured an evening event for parents after the activities, and the regular return of special guests and alumni.
Including the one year, none other than later Olympic javelin champion Tessa Sanderson. Whom Loftus confidently believed he could take on!
“Tessa was a couple of years above me at school and I knew her reasonably well,” he explains.
“I was in the fifth year, as it was called then, and was the best boy javelin thrower in the school when Tessa came back as a special guest on sports day.
“I remember thinking, ‘I know she’s good but she’s not going to beat me.’
“I think she threw it about twice as far and from that point I decided I wasn’t going to take part in the javelin anymore!’
Sanderson’s nephew Dion, now at Birmingham City, would be another to later complete his education at Wolves Academy under Loftus’ watchful eye, and he himself flirted with Wolves’ youth arm long before it became an academy.
Wolverhampton schoolteacher Tony Penman, who also carried out scouting duties for Wolves including spotting the talents of John Richards, used to call on Loftus from time to time when in need of a right midfielder for the club’s third team, usually made up of younger players, learning their trade in leagues such as the West Midlands Combination.
“I always felt I was a better goalkeeper than outfield player, but because Wolverhampton had a goalkeeper in Robert Fletcher who played for England Schools at Under-15 level, that meant I could never play in any teams apart from school,” Loftus recalls.
“Tony Penman took me on tours with Wolverhampton Schools as an outfield player to various places including America, and he would ask me to cover for the youth team or the third team if they were short of a right midfielder.
“Before that, I’d also done a bit of training with Wolves junior age groups in the gym at Molineux, and the Social Club and at Castlecroft, I think mainly because I was local and I knew a few of the people involved.
“In terms of ever trying to make it professionally, I never really had that ambition, mainly because I wasn’t that outstanding as a player.
“I loved football and, growing up, spent every waking hour kicking a ball around, but I also didn’t want to put my future in the hands of other people’s opinions of me as a player.
“It is always a bit of a gamble for anyone to take the plunge to try and become a professional, and it wasn’t one I was ready to take, also because I knew I probably wasn’t quite good enough.”
Heading out for tournaments with Wolverhampton and West Midlands Schools inspired Loftus to take up that career in PE teaching, which he combined with leading or assisting on many similar tours over the years.
So, whilst continuing to play at non-league level pretty much from age 16 up to 45, he always ensured he was available to take schools and representative fixtures along the way.
Tours, often with teaching colleague Phil Lambert, another Wolverhampton Schools football stalwart along with the legendary Barry Austin, saw Loftus head out to Dallas, Atlanta, Nashville and Florida in the USA, as well as across Europe including Dublin and many trips to France.
Each and every trip would provide special memories and experiences for players representing their schools, districts and counties, not to mention for the staff and parents who accompanied them.
And then, in 2004, came the opportunity to combine all those passions – football, education and Wolves – in the role of Education & Welfare Officer with the club’s Academy.
For 16 years, Loftus was a key figure within the set-up with responsibilities for the off-field development of the Academy scholars, ensuring they were provided with a well-rounded experience which prepared them for life to follow, not just in football.
“I had such a great time at Wolves and it was the best job I ever had,” he reflects.
“People said it was a job that was almost written for me because Wolves is my club and it linked education with football which I had spent all my life in.
“It was such a good role and one I really enjoyed, and it felt like I was almost there from the beginning because the Academy system had only really started around the year 2000.
“There were maybe seven or eight staff across the Academy when I joined, but that is very different now as it became more and more important and the whole system has progressed massively.
“When I first came in, it was football people looking after children who weren’t used to looking after children – they were excellent coaches but weren’t necessarily the best placed to be looking after their other development off the pitch.
“I was a bit of a loner at the time in being more education focused than people at other academies, but nowadays the education and welfare side is so much more valued with dedicated staff including in player care.
“It’s definitely become an area where everyone in the game acknowledges Academy scholars need far more than just football input, and a wider experience which benefits their overall development.”
Times have certainly changed, but there remains much to celebrate and enjoy about the Academy during the spell when Loftus and other Wolves staff worked tirelessly to support the club’s young talent.
Notably this was the time when an accreditation process was introduced, and Wolves landed the top Category A status for their overall delivery, while many top players came through, perhaps most recently Gibbs-White but also the many who played a part in the rebuilding of the club following double relegation from the Premier League to League One.
Danny Batth, Ethan Ebanks-Landell, Jack Price, Zeli Ismail and Liam McAlinden were among those who had been with Wolves from such a young age to make an impact at senior level, alongside a returning Academy graduate in Leon Clarke, as Kenny Jackett’s class of 2013/14 reinvigorated both the club and the city.
Loftus wasn’t involved on the football side, but he was overseeing the education, and many of those from his time still contact him for advice and guidance. And he also remains in contact with others whom he managed at schools’ level but play their senior football away from Wolves, including Cameron Archer, previously with Aston Villa, and Brandon Khela, who recently notched his first goal for Birmingham.
Those continuing contacts clearly mean a lot.
“I still hear from a lot of the lads and many with different stories, from those who have gone on to have careers in the game and others who came through some difficult times at Wolves and afterwards,” he explains.
“The rewarding thing for me is that I always told the young players it was important to have an identity away from football.
“That was something I really pushed, and I remember Danny Batth being really open about that and how we encouraged him to go and study for a degree, which he completed.
“However long players are involved in football, it comes to an end at some point, and they are faced with a long life ahead of them.
“They need to have their other interests not just to give them something positive away from football but also to help when they do eventually hang up their boots.”
For Loftus, when his time at Wolves came to an end in late 2020, he wasn’t ready for complete retirement, even though he and wife Rosie now have four grandchildren under the age of four whom they treasure being able to spend so much time with.
He had already been volunteering with the English Schools FA, the governing body for schools and college football in England, and quickly stepped up to fill one of the Midlands’ vacancies on the Council before, the following year, joining the board of trustees as Safeguarding Champion.
That has now led to being appointed Chairman, following in the footsteps of former Derby and Walsall striker Marvin Robinson, who also boasts plenty of Wolverhampton history having attended the city’s Grammar School from 1991 to ’98.
The ESFA boasts a strong and proud tradition of delivering schools’ football including the peak years when schoolboy internationals attracted crowds of 80,000 to Wembley and were screened on terrestrial TV, graced by the likes of Bobby Charlton, Terry Venables,
Those sort of numbers and indeed high-profile figures are certainly not as prevalent in modern times but it still retains such an importance place within the national game and now – in what is one of Loftus’s major ambitions for his chairmanship – has the opportunity to develop and diversify.
That includes nurturing the continued growth of girls’ football, with Loftus, highlighting that that ever-growing discipline should really be filling 50 per cent of the overall portfolio.
“English Schools has always had very strong traditions, but the world has changed since schools’ football hit its peak,” he admits.
“While there are many really positive aspects which we can continue to build on, and those strong traditions that must be respected, I am keen for the ESFA Council to diversify and change in order to continue to deliver as well as we have, for so many years.
“One of the major positives at the moment is how girls are now accepted and it is no longer a novelty to have a girls’ football team at school.
“Last year, we took our first Wolverhampton schools’ team on tour for a good while, and it was a girls’ team, the Under-13s, who went to a tournament in the South of France.
“That was groundbreaking for us, and those tournaments, for both boys and girls, continue to be so important alongside the regular calendar of competitions.
“Our Academy systems in this country are excellent – probably the best in the world – but that doesn’t work for everyone, and that is why schools’ football is still so important.
“Some elite players may go into the professional Academy system and not like it, and prefer to be playing for a grassroots team or with their friends down the park.
“And we must also be that place for so many children who haven’t been able to enjoy the parental support to help them get into a grassroots team or an Academy from an early age.
“There is still the opportunity for schools’ football to unearth some hidden talent, especially among the girls where the Academy systems are not as strong.”
For so many people, whatever level they eventually reached, their first taste of schools’ football is always something that is fondly remembered. For many, it remains their first taste of any sort of football in a structured team environment.
The game has changed, and schools’ football has changed, but it remains hugely significant, and that is why Loftus is heading into his spell as Chairman, and heading to Wembley on Tuesday night, with a mixture of pride and determination about what lies ahead.
“In many ways for me this is the pinnacle, there is no higher position for somebody who has volunteered in schools’ football for so many years like I have,” he explains.
“I have seen many chairmen come and go during the last 40 years, and for me to be the next one in that position is something I am very proud of.
“I hope the year goes well for me, but, far more importantly, I hope it goes well for schools’ football, and that it can continue to thrive and sustain its special impact on the next generation of schoolchildren.”
