Ten years ago, Seth Amoafo left his day job as a teacher to follow his passion of coaching football.
In 2015 he founded the ProActive Soccer School, popularly known as Pass, to use sport to instill lifelong values in young people.
Amoafo's journey began with a handful of youngsters practising on the weekends and afternoons after he had finished his teaching job.
His football sessions now boast over 1,100 pupils from ages 3 to 17 across 20 training centres in Abu Dhabi. Pass has helped produce players who have represented both the UAE age-group teams as well as professional clubs such as Al Ain, Al Jazira and Al Wahda.
“We've been blessed. What I love about what we do here is that we've got a programme that's got a real identifiable pathway,” Amoafo told The National.
“We've got a foundation programme, which is where our beginner kids start from, and then they move into our competitive programme and so forth.
“We're proud to see these players that have progressed into professional academies and the UAE national teams at various levels.
“It's been brilliant for us because these kids have stayed with us and stayed the whole journey. They're our players, our products, and they've managed to get through.”
Amoafo set up Pass while working for Manchester United Soccer School in Abu Dhabi in 2015. The number of children signing up for the programme became so high, Amoafo said he had to incorporate Pass as a legitimate business.
“The programme grew to the point where we had to turn it into something official, to protect ourselves and to protect our participants and our parents,” he said of how he founded Pass.
“So that's when we decided to get a business license in 2015 and then officially became a company.
“It’s quite funny because it's almost like an accidental business.”
Amoafo has been involved in football as a player and coach all his life. He learnt the game in his native Ghana, playing football with rubber balls and socks stuffed with material, on patches of grass and sand, before moving with his family to the UK age 11.
He played for his local youth team, Basingstoke Town, but, by his own admission, "was never good enough to make it".
Amoafo got his first taste of coaching while studying law at London South Bank University. Back then he was still playing, but the university's third team needed a coach, and so he volunteered. He won a trophy in his first season "so I just kind of continued it,” he says.
After completing his degree, Amoafo joined English Premier League club Chelsea as a community coach in 2002. He moved into teaching and worked his way to become the head of a PE department at a school in England.
He arrived in Abu Dhabi in 2009 and worked in several schools, but spent the majority of his time at Al Jazira Club, teaching English to local players, including national team players Abdullah Ramadan and Mohammed Al Hammadi.
Amoafo, a Uefa-certified coach, is proud of the conveyor belt of talent off the Pass production line. Notable students include Jake Peacock, a British-Emirati who has represented the UAE Under-13s as has Emir Sarypbekov. Noah Clarke, a Barbados native, has been capped by UAE U16s. South African Noah Smith is on the books at Abu Dhabi club Al Wahda. They were all around six years of age when they enrolled at Pass.
It's not just the boys, either. Ella Shepherd (UK) and Aya Sidani (Canada) have both represented the U17 UAE team centre of excellence after coming through the ranks at Pass.
Amoafo says Pass' aims go beyond discovering "the next big thing" in football. "It's all about creating the next best human being, and that's the key purpose.”
At Pass, each player has six key values inscribed on their shirt sleeves: sporting, pride, integrity, respect, discipline, and teamwork. “That's important because that's what we believe life's for. Sport teaches life.
“Our objective is to make sure that we have something for everyone. If someone wants to take their game to the next level, we'll help you along those lines. If you want to play football casually, we'll help you with that.
“But the bottom line is that no matter who you are, we want you to be the best person you can be. I love the fact that I've been here for 16 years in Abu Dhabi. I've seen thousands and thousands of young players.
“It's brilliant that I can see a young player who doesn't play for us anymore, who plays for another club, and they'll still come and say hello. Or I see them in the mall, and they'll still come and say hello.
“I don't really have a job because I don't see this as a job. I work seven days a week, different stuff all the time, and I love every minute.”
