Non-League and Academy football writer

Kodi Lyons-Foster has some great experience of playing academy football, at clubs such as Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa, as well as in non-League football, for clubs such as Aldershot Town and Braintree Town. The 27 year old central defender is a player who has great reading and understanding of the game, as well as leadership qualities, and he still has so much to give to the game. He is currently playing for National League South club Tonbridge Angels, a club where Kodi is a very important member of their first team. I recently had the great pleasure of speaking to Kodi about some of his footballing memories in the game, so far.

What are some of your earliest footballing memories?

Kodi: My earliest footballing memory would be playing for Finsbury Park FC. We used to play on Friday nights at Market Road, and that was seven-a-side. A couple of years on from that I played Sunday league football, for a team called AC Finchley. So those were my two Sunday league teams, and so those would be my earliest memories of playing football, before moving to the Spurs Academy when I was 11 or 12.

Who have been some of the biggest influences on your footballing career, so far?

Kodi: I think that first and foremost, it is my dad, Steve. My dad has always pushed me and my other siblings as well, and we’ve always loved sport since we were younger, and he has helped harness that competitive nature within in us from when we were youngsters. In the house, we all wanted to be the strongest and quickest, and the best at football. So my dad is still the biggest influence on my football career.

Could you talk me through some of your earliest memories of your time at Spurs’ Academy? Also, how did you come about joining the club?

Kodi: My younger brother Brooklyn joined Spurs first, after having been at Watford when he was younger. I actually went on trial at Watford, but that was probably a bit too soon for me, as I wasn’t quite ready. I was quite tall at the time and not quite technically there, and so it didn’t work out at Watford. That was when I was 10, and then fast forward 18 months, and I’d moved from Watford to Spurs. After playing for my Sunday league team, I’d ended up getting into the development centre at Spurs, and so I would go to their development centre which was off White Hart Lane. From there we actually had a friendly match between the development team and a Spurs academy team. I think that it was Chris Ramsey who picked me up from there, and so I had my six week trial with Spurs, before being signed by the club. When I first joined Spurs’ Academy, in my age group there was some good players, like Luke Amos, Josh Onomah and Denzeil Boadu. They were like the three main players, and I was looking at them three and thinking that I wanted to be on par with them. I was looking at how they played, and obviously they’d been in the academy a lot longer than I had, but I was thinking to myself, how am I going to get to their level, to be able to compete with them. 

After about a year/two years I’d ended up getting on par with those three players that I’d mentioned, who had been offered four year contracts from the age of 12, and so it was a group of three before, and then it kind of became a group of four. I also got given a four year contract, and so I used to think that this is where I wanted to be, and I loved training at Spurs, and I loved putting on the shirt as well. So being a Spurs fan, it was a dream come true for me and my family.

What was your time at Spurs’ Academy like on the whole?

Kodi: It was brilliant. I rubbed shoulders with some top players, coaches and people, and some people who I still speak to now. I’ve built some lifelong relationships with some of those coaches, and players as well. It was brilliant, not only on the pitch, but socially as well. Last Christmas time I saw Kyle Walker-Peters, and we had a laugh. So ten or so years later on it’s still nice to have that bond between our teammates, and we had a real togetherness around our changing room. So along with being good players, they were really good people.

Could you talk me through some of your subsequent memories of your time spent at Aston Villa and later Bristol City’s academy set-ups?

Kodi: So Aston Villa was a bit of a transitional period. Moving away from home, family and friends, and I didn’t know anyone at the club when I first joined them. So it was about building relationships with new people, and at the time I think that I was the only player there from London in the Aston Villa Under 18’s team. But it was a brilliant experience, and I settled in really quickly, and I got to know some teammates really well, who are now lifelong friends. I also got my first experience of training with the first team there, under Tim Sherwood and Paul Lambert. So that was a brilliant experience, at Aston Villa. Going to Bristol City was a bit of an eye opener, because I’d gone from brilliant training grounds at Spurs and Aston Villa, to Bristol City’s then training ground, which isn’t what it is now. It was back to those humble beginning as such. I worked with former Bristol City player Jamie McAllister, who was my Under 21’s manager at the time, and I thought that he was class and also someone who I could speak with and learn from. So I really enjoyed my time at Bristol City.

Could you talk me through some of your earliest memories of playing non-League football?

Kodi: I went from Bristol City to Aldershot, which was another eye opener, going into a first team environment. At the time the club were pushing for the play-off positions. So I was in a changing room with players who’d only just missed out on the play-offs the season before, and who were in The Football League only a couple of years before that. It was a great set-up there, under then manager Gary Waddock. I could learn off two good centre-halves at the time in Will Evans and Callum Reynolds, but it was a good changing room there. After not getting a lot of game time at Aldershot, I thought that I needed to go out and learn my trade. So I went to Whitehawk to start building up a CV for myself, and also to start getting games. So I went to Whitehawk, who were then in a bit of a scrap lower down the leagues at the time, and the ground was really on a hill. And that is probably one of the biggest hills in non-League football, which made every game a game of two halves. So if you were kicking down hill in the first half, you were just trying to get the momentum, but in the second half it was just so difficult defending.

Could you talk me through some of your standout memories of your time in non-League football, so far?

Kodi: I’ve been fortunate enough to be in some good dressing rooms over the years, with some good people. I think that one of my standout moments would be scoring two goals for Aldershot against Boreham Wood, with those being my first two goals for Aldershot that night. I think that my first National League goal was for Braintree Town against Grimsby. But playing away at your Wrexham’s and Notts County’s was great, as was competing with some top players, who weren’t non-League players. So competing against those players was great.

You have worked your way up the steps of non-League football, to play step 1 non-League football. How difficult was it to achieve that? And also, what would your advice be to players who have left top Academy set-ups, and who are looking to move into non-League football?

Kodi: I think that you’ve got to be brave and be bold in your decisions, but I think that first and foremost that going into non-League can be daunting. When I first signed for Aldershot, I’d heard of some of the clubs, but I wasn’t entirely sure what the whole Conference set-up was at the time, before playing in it. The standard is getting better and better each year, and I think that there’s a lot of money going into the league now, and you just have to look at some of the clubs who are dropping into non-League, and also look at their grounds. It is almost essentially a league three, if you like. I think that the biggest thing for players who are leaving academy football, is earning less money and maybe having to work alongside playing, but that makes you into a much more hungrier person. I think that you’ll always have that desire to get back into full-time football, because when you get a taste of something, and then lose it, then you want to get back to that even more.

What has been the greatest moment of your footballing career so far?

Kodi: It would probably be playing internationally for England at youth level, and that was a hugely proud moment for myself and my family. Also, signing for Spurs and Aston Villa, those are my three proudest moments. And I think that now as I get older, I cherish those moments more. I reflect on those moments and think how big they were and how big an achievement that they were. I still really want to achieve more, and I’ve got plenty of time on my hands. I think that I’m coming into my prime years and I just want to keep going to experience more big things in football.

You went on trial with League of Ireland side Derry City, for a while. How did that come about?

Kodi: So Derry City would have been my first proper loan, and so I was trialling there with a view to a loan move. It was a good experience, and at the time I was none the wiser as to what the League of Ireland was about. When I went to Derry, there were some good players there, such as Ronan Curtis. It was very similar to the National League in terms of the clubs there, with some of them maybe being a bit better. It didn’t manifest how I wanted it to, as my contract at Bristol City was expiring when their season was about to begin, and so it was one of those situations where I ended up staying in England in the end. You could feel the buzz around Derry City at the time, and it’s a sleeping giant of a club. 

What have you made of the current National League South season, overall?

Kodi: It’s been unusual, in the sense that it’s been a one horse race from early doors, with Yeovil dropping into the division, and they’ve been extremely strong this season, and they’ve been consistent. One week you’ve got Worthing, who are second in the league, doing well, and then you’ve got Maidstone United and Hampton & Richmond doing really well, or Chelmsford City. So it’s been a really up and down kind of season, and there’s really been a lot to play for. Anyone can beat anyone in this league, and it’s been a really competitive season. I’ve enjoyed being at Tonbridge Angels, and I’ve really enjoyed working under Jay Saunders, who I think is a top manager.

What are some of your hopes and aims for the remainder of this season with Tonbridge Angels? And also, how are you finding your first season with Tonbridge Angels?

Kodi: I’ve enjoyed my first season. There’s some great people at the club, and it’s a really family orientated club. The main thing for us now is just taking everything game by game, and hopefully we can achieve a top ten finish, and also coming into the business end of the season, there’s obviously contracts up for grabs and things like that. My ultimate aim is to play for as long as possible, and as high as possible.