Directors of Football

Honorary President Colin Barnes Head of Recruitment Crystal Palace FC

Nationality: England
Current Team: CPFC Showcase

Colin Barnes is Head of Recruitment for Crystal Palace FC

His previous posts included:

Head of Academy Goalkeeping & Recruitment Reading FC

Head of Youth Wycombe Wanderers

Director of Football Nigel James

Nationality: England
Current Team: Nigel James Academy, ,

Nigel James is the Academy Director of the Nigel James Elite Coaching Academy, specialising on the repetition of core skills which focuses on ball mastery to produce elite technical footballers. Nigel has also worked on the professional side of the sport for 14 years as a talent ID scout for Fulham, Reading and Tottenham. He began his own playing career at the age of 14 and appeared with Luton Town, Farnborough Town and Aldershot. Nigel is also currently the head youth coach Kingstonians

Director of Football Samy Balal

Current Team: Elite London Academy,

Samy started ELA to offer dedicated footballers unprecedented growth opportunities. He saw the gap between grassroots and Academy Football and founded a club that increases players to more readily transition between the two. He supports this by ensuring his teams are all in top leagues along with arranging plenty of Showcase Matches against professional academies.

Having played academy football for Leeds United and Barnet Academy, Samy now works as a scout for a Top Premier league side, having previously been a coach at Wolves and Leyton Orient FC