Non-League and Academy football writer

Kenneth Boateng is the manager of Essex Alliance Football League Senior Division side Kulture FC. The 26-year-old has been on a real journey in grassroots/non-League football, so far. Having owned, managed and chaired a club (Crookz United) in the Essex Alliance Football League in the past, the former Aldershot academy player also managed West Essex Under 23s, during the 2023/24 season. Kenneth currently leads Kulture FC for an historic season in the club’s relatively short history, with it being their first season at step 7 of the non-League pyramid. I recently caught up with Kenneth, to look back at some of his time in football so far, as well as talking about his time at Kulture, during the current 2024/25 season.

Could you talk me through a bit about your background in football, prior to joining Kulture FC (including your time as chairman of Crookz United)?

Kenneth: I was a youngster from Hackney who loved football, due to the fact my brother and pretty much everyone around me in my local area played football. So I started playing football at a young age, and I started playing for a grassroots team, called Shoreditch FC. I can remember at the age of about 13/14, that was when the trials started coming into my mind, and I had trials with clubs like Watford, Fulham, Stevenage and a few other professional clubs. So I was taking and learning from those experiences, and also from the coaches at those clubs. Coaches would say to me that I had the technical ability and understanding of the game but not the physicality. Back then I was still learning the game more and more, and I was mainly a winger, who was fast and skilful, but I could also play as a striker and 10. 

My first professional club was Aldershot at U18 levels, I spent three years playing full-time under managers such as Josh Gallagher, the brother of Atlético Madrid midfielder Connor Gallagher. During this time, I gained valuable experience by training with the first team, although I did not make any senior league appearances. However, I did participate in cup competitions & friendlies, which provided me with important insights into non-league football.

In my final year, we won the National League Under-19 League, but changes were on the horizon with the introduction of an Under-23 side. I was fortunate to have great coaches like Lee Collier and Patrick Ryan at Aldershot, as well as Ali Melloul, my coach at Fulham, who inspired me to pursue a career in coaching.

A lot of us players from the Aldershot youth team weren’t very keen to continue despite being offered a U23 non-paid contract, because we weren’t going to get paid. Also, for me, being from Hackney, the travel to Aldershot was very difficult. This was back in 2018, and then during the following season (after leaving Aldershot) I went deeper into non-league football. I went to clubs like Chalfont St Peter, as well as a couple of other clubs. But back in 2018 non-League football wasn’t as popular as it is now. Nowadays everyone’s on social media and YouTube talking about non-league football, whereas back then I didn’t think that it was like that, at all. Because of the fact that the non-League clubs who I was at/trialled with, were unable to promise me a lot of minutes (as they had experienced ex-pros in their squad), my love of the game as a player started to go. In 2018 I didn’t know anything about the Essex Senior League or the Thurlow Nunn League, as I only knew/was interested in playing football in the Ryman League, as it was then, and not any lower.

After discussing with my parents I decided to continue in football, by continuing to do my coaching badges. In 2019 I decided to go to university and get a bachelor’s degree in sports coaching analysis and sports science, together. I also did my coaching badges on the side, working towards getting my level two coaching badges. Whilst in my last year of uni, 2020, was the year of everyone stepping out of their comfort zone (during Covid) and creating new things. In 2020 I decided to create a football club, called Crookz United. I always wanted to create a football club, ever since I was young. We initially started out as a Sunday league team, mainly because a lot of my friends didn’t play Saturday football, or had been released from academy football. So it was very easy for me to recruit players and work with them. That was a good starter for me in terms of my coaching, with Crookz United being the first club that I’d coached.

Crookz United started in the Inner Football London League, and we were there with some good teams, like London All Stars, East Elite, Hacks United & ACE. In our first season in that league, we finished in second place, only narrowly missing out on winning the league. Due to the talent that I had at the club, and also the number of former pro academy players who were playing for me. I had a striker on our team named Chaynie Fage-Burgin, who currently plays for Potters Bar Town. He was, and still is, a very talented player and will always be one of my favourite strikers. At the time, he didn’t have a club. It has always been a passion of mine to help players like him advance in their football careers. I informed the team that for the start of the following season, we would be transitioning to Saturday football as a group of friends, embarking on our own non-league journey.

(Kenneth is pictured with the team that he founded, Crookz United).

The dream was for Crookz United, a team from Hackney, to one day play in the FA Cup, that was my vision for Crookz United. Once I created the club I became a businessman in general, and I started researching things like did the Borough of Hackney have its own football ground, in non-League? No, it didn’t. And it’s still the only Borough in London not to have its own football ground. So I had this ambition of seeing whether I could take this club forward, and get people and sponsors on board, to support this dream and ambition of mine. My closest friend, Jeremiah, actually invested in the club. And he supported my dream/ambition to help Crookz United. I was also using my own money from my student loan and from when I used to play football, to help the club and also its players to get up the leagues.

Thanks to Barry Fitzgerald and the rest of his staff, after applying to the Essex Alliance Football League, we were accepted into the Premier Division (step 8). We got promoted to step 7 at the first time of asking, which was when the challenges really started, with several players moving on to play higher up in non-League, at steps 3, 4 and 5. And so I didn’t want to stop my friends from going on to play their football higher up the leagues. Step 7 football is when it starts to get more serious, and financially it started to become a bit too much, with all of the stuff that you need to do/have, at that level. And if you don’t have a lot of people on board to invest in your club, then things start to become very difficult. I was 23 when I started Crookz United, and I didn’t have loads of money or have my own business. I was just a youngster with a dream.

We didn’t have a bad start to life at step 7 of the non-league system, but for me, running and coaching a club became very, very difficult. That was when I started to hire coaches to help the club progress, but it got to the point where even if the club avoided relegation from the Senior Division, we wouldn’t be able to afford to continue financially, plus we didn’t have enough players. You need to have a lot of dedicated players at that level, with clubs like FC Baresi, in the past, and also Frenford Development and CSM London showing that level of commitment. I told all of the players that season, to give it all that they could, but regardless of whether they avoided relegation, the club was still going to fold at the end of the season, because I just couldn’t afford to continue to fund the club.

It was truly disappointing to have to fold Crookz United, especially since we had such ambitious plans for the club. One of our main goals was to regain access to the old Leyton FC stadium for footballing purposes. We aimed to secure investments for that project and also sought support from the local council.

After the dissolution of Crookz United, I continued my work as a PE teacher. One of my colleagues, Josh Rogers, who is the assistant manager at West Essex FC, approached me with an opportunity. He asked if I would like to become the Reserve team manager at West Essex, after discussing it with the club’s chairman and first team manager George Karsa.

Last season, I took on the role of Reserve Team Manager at West Essex, which also allowed me to assist with the first team.

At West Essex I didn’t have to worry about the business side of things, like I did with Crookz United, instead, I could just focus on coaching and helping to develop players from the reserve side. In that season I helped to progress nine players from the Under 23/reserve side, into the West Essex first-team environment. Theo Jones (the chairman of Kulture) played for West Essex last season, and we all had a discussion about Kulture potentially linking up with West Essex, to allow young players to potentially progress into the West Essex first team, after having played men’s football for Kulture, and at a good level, rather than having previously only played reserve team football. That move also benefits Kulture, because it also means that they’ll get talented young players from West Essex, as well. Also, players will always have a link with a club that is higher up the non-League pyramid, as all I have to do is call the West Essex first-team manager, to suggest a player for their first team, because of West Essex’s affiliation with Kulture. 

West Essex is a great club, that will always be in my heart, and they are a club with great people, such as Dan Reading, George Karsa, Craig Lethbridge and Rob Sack.

Stepping into Kulture, as much as I wanted to focus on developing players and getting them into West Essex’s first team, I had bigger ambitions. Kulture, they are a club that recently moved across to step 7 for the start of this current season, and so my thing was to make sure that we could build the team up, and also make sure that they are established at step 7. I want to make sure that we are ready for next season, to then get promoted to step 6. And next season we will have the necessary ground-grading regulations and the ground needed to go for promotion to step 6. But my ambitions for this season were always to build a stable team that can compete in the Senior Division and also to make sure that everyone knows about Kulture. It makes me very happy to see some of the players at Kulture, earning moves to clubs higher up the non-League pyramid, such as Tyrese Sibanda, who signed for Dulwich Hamlet, during this season. So pushing players on to clubs higher up is something that we have a real emphasis on at Kulture.

How have you found the first five or so months of the 2024/25 season, being the manager of Kulture FC?

Kenneth: It’s been a huge learning curve for me. Being back at step 7 and adjusting to a new squad and environment, has meant that I have learnt a lot in a relatively short space of time. I’ve been enjoying seeing the players progressing, as well. The reason that I was so convinced to join Theo at Kulture, was because I’ve already been where he is now, having owned Crookz United, so I know how difficult that it can be. But I’ve been so impressed with the job that he has done with Kulture, so far. If I can keep things stable and keep on improving players, then next season I want to make sure that we win the Senior Division. So on the first five or six months of the season, I would’ve hoped, from a management point of view, that we would be in the top three or five clubs of the league table. But because of the amount of draws that we have had this season and points that we have dropped so far this season, that has become a bit difficult. 

In the second half of this season, we really want to properly implement our footballing philosophy, and just prepare ourselves for next season, so basically just trying to stay ahead of the game.

What have you made (as a whole) of how the Essex Alliance Football League Senior Division season has gone, so far?

Kenneth: It’s been a surprising season, in terms of clubs being in places in the league table where you wouldn’t expect them to be, at this stage of the season. It shows that in non-League that if you’re not consistent, then it makes it very difficult to get promoted to step 6. So this season has been an eye opener, with a lot of teams dropping points, and so it is difficult to predict how this exciting season will end. However, the quality of the league, from where I was with Crookz United, has definitely improved.

Who would you say has been the toughest team that you have played so far this season, for their quality?

Kenneth: Despite having to play my goalkeeper coach in that game, I would have to say Philip United. The way in which they are structured and how they play their football on the pitch, is very impressive. We still haven’t played CSM London, and so I can’t comment on them yet. Also, a team to watch out for is Saint City, who are a very good team, who are a club to watch out for from the division below. Barkingside Reserves are also a very good team from the division below, and they are a team who knocked us out of the Fenton Cup, this season. A lot of their players are 17/18, and they really impressed me as a team.

What are some of your hopes for the remainder of this season, with Kulture FC?

Kenneth: So for the rest of this season, I want us to finish in the top five of the Senior Division. I also want us to win the Senior Division Cup, because this club deserves to win silverware, and also just prepare for next season, when we look to make that next step, to win the league. The plans that Theo has for next season, are really good. So I’d rather set my targets for the rest of the year, rather than just the end of this season, which is for Kulture to be top of the league by December, and aim to win the Senior Division. 

I would like to give a shout-out to Spencer Owen and Bobby Kasanga, who run Hashtag United and Hackney Wick, respectively. They have truly inspired me to start my own non-league club, Crookz United. I also want to acknowledge Tunga, who was my first manager at the grassroots level.