How a child can get into the Spartak, Dinamo or CSKA academy: the real route
“How do you get into the Spartak academy?” is one of the most common questions from parents whose child has become serious about football. Here is an honest, step-by-step answer: at what age club academies recruit children, how a trial is organised, what coaches actually assess and what you can do so your child arrives prepared. No promises and no magic shortcuts — they simply do not exist in this field.
First, an honest word about the odds
Club academies select a handful of players out of a very large pool: dozens of children of the same birth year come to a trial at a popular club, and only a few make the squad. That is normal and it does not mean something is wrong with your child — competition in Moscow youth football is simply high.
So the right mindset for a parent is this: the goal is not to “get in at any cost”, but to give the child a solid football base. With that base, they will either pass selection or keep playing with pleasure — in their own team, at tournaments, in a school league. Any club that promises you a place in an academy is not telling the truth: the decision is always made by the academy coach at the trial.
At what age academies recruit
As a rule, the first intakes at club academies start at around 6–7 years old, and the main wave of trials falls between 7 and 9. There are later entry points too: teams top up their squads at 10–13 as well, when someone leaves and someone else grows noticeably in level.
One important detail: academies recruit by year of birth, not by school class. A child born in January and a child born in December of the same year compete in the same group — and at this age the difference in physical development can be striking. Keep that in mind and do not draw conclusions from a single trial.
How to find out about a trial and sign up
There is no single sign-up portal — the route looks like this:
- The academy's official website. Trial dates, the birth years being recruited and contacts for registration are published there.
- The academy's official social media. Recruitment announcements often appear there before they reach the website.
- A phone call to the academy. The most reliable way to check whether your child's birth year is being recruited right now.
- Youth tournaments. Scouts watch games regularly — sometimes an invitation comes from there.
For a trial you are usually asked to bring kit, boots (check the surface type), shin guards, water and a medical certificate. Confirm the requirements of the specific academy in advance — they differ.
How a trial works and what coaches assess
The format is similar almost everywhere: a warm-up, ball drills, short game-based tasks and small-sided matches. What they watch is not “how many goals he scored”, but something else entirely:
- Ball work. How confidently the child carries the ball, whether they use both feet, whether they lose it under pressure.
- Decision speed. Whether they see a team-mate, pass at the right moment, understand what is happening on the pitch.
- Coordination and general movement skills. How they move without the ball, keep balance, change direction.
- Character. Whether they give up after a mistake, whether they compete, listen to the coach, play for the team.
- Ability to learn. Whether they can apply straight away what the coach explained a minute ago — this is valued especially highly.
A separate word about goalkeepers: they are assessed by their own criteria — work in goal, play with the feet, reactions and bravery. If your child gravitates towards the goal, they need dedicated preparation — that is what our goalkeeper school is for.
How to prepare: what actually helps
Preparing for a trial is not a two-week crash course but regular training across the season. What produces results:
Plenty of touches on the ball. The more a child works with the ball themselves, the more confident they look at selection. Our sessions follow the Brazilian GINGA method: each child has their own ball for almost the whole session, with minimal queueing — more on that in our article about the Brazilian method.
Using both feet. One of the first things an academy coach notices is whether the child can control and pass the ball with their weaker foot.
Match practice. Small-sided games teach quick thinking — you cannot learn that from drills alone.
Individual work on a weak spot. If the shot, the first touch or confidence in duels is lagging behind, individual sessions help precisely with that.
Calm parents. Children read adult anxiety. At a trial it matters that they play with enjoyment rather than fear of making a mistake.
If they are not selected: what to do next
A rejection at a trial is neither a verdict nor a judgement of your child as a person. The coach picks for a particular squad and the particular tasks of that season: one child was a few centimetres short, another simply burned out on the day.
What to do: ask the coach for feedback, keep training, try other academies and come back a year later — football is full of stories of players who passed selection on the second or third attempt. And most importantly: even if a professional path does not work out, years of training give a child health, friends and character — and that stays with them either way.
How we help you prepare
We tell parents honestly: we do not place children in clubs and we do not guarantee selection — that decision belongs to the academy. Our job is to prepare the child so that they arrive at the trial with solid technique and a calm head: regular sessions in their own age group, plenty of ball work, match practice and — on request — individual sessions for a specific task. More about this on our academy trial preparation page.
Sessions run at two locations: Khimki, Kudryavtseva St., 10B and Moscow, Capitol Mall, Pravoberezhnaya St., 1B. The first session is free: come to a trial session, see the level of the group and talk to the coach about what exactly your child should work on. Prices and passes are on the Prices page, and parents' reviews are here.
If your child is 13–16 and you think it is “too late”, it is not: how to start and where to grow at that age is covered in our piece on football for teenagers.