Everton Unveil New Academy Head Of CoachingDave Adams is stand-out choice after worldwide search for roleEverton Football Club has appointed Dave Adams as the Club’s new Academy Head of Coaching.
Following an extensive recruitment process, led by Academy Director Dr Peter Vint, Adams emerged as the stand-out choice from a list of more than 90 domestic and international candidates worldwide.
A UEFA Pro-Licence coach with a proven track record for developing players and coaches, Adams is highly-respected and renowned as an innovative coach and educator who has worked at every level of the game, from Academy through to first team.
Prior to joining the Blues, Adams was Academy Head of Coaching at Swansea City where he was responsible for transforming the club’s youth development department from a Category 2 Academy to a well-established Category 1 Academy, including a top-tier ranking in Football Development. He also oversaw the Swans' first youth national championship triumph as manager of the Under-23s development squad and spent five months working as first-team assistant manager during the 2015/16 season when the Welsh team finished 12th in the Premier League.
Adams was involved for a decade as national youth team coach for the Football Association of Wales, working with many players who went on to become full Welsh internationals.
He is also a respected UEFA coach educator and mentor with more than 15 years’ experience educating and mentoring managers and coaches such as Garry Monk, Simon Grayson, Kit Symons, and Pepijn Lijnders.
The 37-year-old was also responsible for the development of youth-specific coaching qualifications for the Football Association of Wales, including the Advanced Youth Award, UEFA A Licence, and UEFA Pro Licence.
Welcoming him to the Club, Academy Director Dr Peter Vint said: “Dave is a proven and successful architect of scientifically-informed and expertly-implemented player and coach development systems.
“He has delivered this with a unique blend of football coaching experience and expertise in the applied sciences related to coaching effectiveness, skill acquisition, and football performance.
“He is a thoughtful, innovative professional who possesses the skills, experience and personality to adapt to meet the individual needs of our players and our staff.
“His commitment to player and coach development is reflected by the excellent body of work he has already delivered in these areas and I am genuinely excited to bring him to USM Finch Farm.”
Adams said one of the big attractions of Everton was the Club’s proud history of developing young players and bringing them through to the first team.
He said: “I’m really excited to be joining Everton Football Club. This is a big club, with big ambitions to be the best and to produce world-class players.
“My vision is to work with the coaches here and support the player development process to enable the most talented players in the Academy to progress into the first team.
“Everton has a proud history of producing good, young players. The Club is renowned for that and I’m excited by the opportunity to work in an environment where the vision is to be the best.
“I’ve got experience of delivering large-scale player development programmes and the idea is to work with the excellent staff we already have in place to map out a methodology that reflects the Everton philosophy.”
Dr Vint added: “I believe Dave’s experience and understanding of global high-performance environments will be a tremendous complement to our coaches, to me and our Academy Management Team, and to our entire Academy staff. I am excited to bring him on board and I know he will be a huge asset to Everton.”
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