Akusti was born in Turku, Finland and is married with two children. He played football up until the age of 19 before being forced to retire after a second ACL injury. He started his coaching qualifications a year later. Holding a number of roles as youth coach and U19 and U17 coach for a series of Finnish teams he is now first team women head coach for TPS Turku. TPS is a professional football club based in Turku, Finland. The men’s first team and women’s first team both play in the highest tier of their respective leagues in Finland. The club is nicknamed “Tepsi” and was founded in 1922. Akusti has a passion to continue his coach education and regularly attends courses and visits pro clubs across Europe. This includes Benfica, Valencia and RB Leipzig in Germany. He achieved his UEFA A Licence in 2017.

Dave is an English football coach and enjoyed 20 years at Middlesbrough FC as Academy Director. Parnaby is from County Durham. He was a teacher for 22 years. He was manager of non-league Gateshead and coached England Under 15 School Boys before joining ‘Boro. Middlesbrough have been noted as having one of the most productive youth academy systems in European Football. There are currently no fewer than 19 Middlesbrough Academy representatives playing for England at various levels. In 2008, Parnaby gained the UEFA PRO Licence coaching qualification. The following year, he won the lifetime achievement award at the North-East Sports Awards.

Stephen has been working in football or soccer as he would call it, for over 15 years. He is currently the Assistant Coach of the women’s soccer side at NC State University, a Division One program that plays in the top conference in the country - The ACC. He is originally from Bangor, Northern Ireland and currently lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. Stephen has worked on both sides of the Atlantic not only in College Soccer but in the youth game in America and also had a stint in the Irish FA in their Primary School’s program before moving back to America and working at the highest level in College Coaching in the States. But he would arguably say that his favourite coaching stop was here, with me at TW Sports!

Hugo is a Portuguese UEFA Pro Licence coach. He is currently the Assistant Manager for Boavista FC that play in the Portuguese Primeira Liga. Vicente’s journey in the game has been an interesting one that has taken him all over the globe. He has held roles at SL Benfica and SC Braga before opportunities came along that took him to Norway, Denmark and China. From 2019 he has held roles in the top level, in Portugal, among the top leagues in the world, to be assistant coach at FC Famalicao before his recent move to Boavista.

Ludo grew up in Belgium, famous for its beer, chocolate and waffles. He studied PE, Sports Personal Trainer and psychology. Ludo has held positions as a teacher and coaching jobs in American International Schools and work as a performance scientist. Ludo has worked in Belgium, Qatar, Congo and Hungary. He specialises in mental training and developing performance construction functions.

Born in Imatra, Finland. Santeri grew up playing youth football as a goalkeeper. He got involved in coaching from an early age holding roles with local clubs in Imatra and as a regional assistant coach with the Finnish FA. He now works in Helsinki with the biggest club in Finland, HJK.

Born in Lurgan, Northern Ireland. Pat played for Lurgan United from the age of 11-15 before moving to Irish Premiership side, Portadown. After successful trials his next move was to Manchester United were he played from 1992-1997. His debut was a memorable one! After going out on loan to Wigan Athletic he made the move permanent. He scored the winning goal in the play off final to gain promotion to league 1. He made 213 appearances for Wigan, scoring 14 goals. After playing for Portadown and Glentoran he got into management. It included spells with Lurgan Celtic, Monaghan United, Newry City and Portadown. His current position at TTBS, he set up in 2013 to promote positive mental health and a platform for kids to play football.

Mike grew up playing street football before having trials with Oldham and Rochdale. He was a grassroots volunteer before having coaching spells with pro clubs including Burnley, Blackpool and Fleetwood Town. He set up the Fleetwood Town International Football Academy and enjoyed a spell coaching for Aston Villa in China. McGarvey has set up his own coaching program, Fylde Coast Soccer and focuses on the importance of educating players and parents.

Ernie Brennan, founder of Children’s Football Alliance, started his career in music extensively touring Europe and USA with major recording artists whilst signed to Music for Nations. As an award winning film maker and with 11 years experience as Head of Production working for an independent production company Ernie has produced and directed many social inclusion programmes for National and regional governments. Whilst producing social documentaries he became inspired to research the need for a Children’s Football Alliance.

Harry grew up on a farm in Holland. While playing football he started coaching and by the age of 21 he was a UEFA A Licence coach. Today he works in a sport college and delivers KNVB coaching courses. His journey seen him work in Holland with Willem II and he helped develop Virgil van Dijk. While in England he enjoyed coaching spells at the Academies of Middlesbrough FC and Sunderland. Here he had a talented U14 team that included Jordan Henderson.