Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack is using a Ghanaian Academy and Danish top flight club as a blueprint for developing big money talent.
Cormack has looked towards Danish Superliga FC Nordsjaelland who sold rising stars for more than €40m in recent seasons.
FC Nordsjaelland were bought by the Ghana-based Right To Dream Academy in 2015.
The Danes have secured huge fees with transfers of young talent to clubs including Ajax, Sampdoria and Rennes.
Aberdeen teenager Calvin Ramsay is on the radar of English Premier League sides including Manchester United, Liverpool, West Ham, Everton and Southampton.
The world’s richest club Newcastle United, FA Cup holders Leicester City and Watford are the latest interested in Ramsay.
The Reds are braced for an approach for the 18-year-old during the January transfer window which opens on Saturday.
Ramsay is contracted to Aberdeen until summer 2024.
Transfer fees in excess of €40m
Cormack insists FC Nordsjaelland and Right To Dream offer a strong model for developing youth and maximising monetary return at the optimum moment.
The chairman says due to a competitive wage bill Aberdeen were running at a £2m loss even before the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The reality is the Dons ultimately need to sell players to balance the books.
He said: “I look at Nordsjaelland and to use their example you bring players through and monetize them at the right time.
“You bring players in hopefully at the right age to replace them or there is a conveyor belt of younger guys coming through.
“The guys that own Nordsjaelland also own Right To Dream and have the Academy in Ghana.
“Of course, it’s easier to bring kids over from Ghana to Scandinavia than it is to Scotland for obvious reasons.
“I have talked to Tom Vernon who started Right To Dream that owns Nordsjaelland.
“Nordjsaelland have sold three young players – one to Sampdoria, one to Cincinatti in the MLS and the other to Ajax for €20m between them.
“They also just sold (Kamaldeen) Sulemana to Rennes for €21m with €15-16m upfront.”
𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠 𝗧𝗘𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗠𝗔𝗡 🇬🇭
Techiman → Liberty FC → @right2dream → FC Nordsjælland → @staderennais 🇫🇷Kamaldeen. Sulemana. Eternal flame. Mugun yaro. We don’t even know where to start 👇@Kamaldeenho10 pic.twitter.com/GO9Hi3NPJM
— FC Nordsjælland 🐯 (@FCNordsjaelland) July 16, 2021
The meteoric rise of Right to Dream
Right To Dream is a football Academy founded in Ghana by former Manchester City youth coach Tom Vernon, 42, in 1999.
In January this year Right To Dream secured a €100m investment from Egyptian conglomerate The Mansour Group to expand the pioneering model and explore the purchase of a British club.
Right To Dream are set to open an Academy in Egypt in 2022.
Champions League winner Djimi Traoré recently joined as head coach of International Academy, overseeing the academies in Ghana, Denmark and soon to be Egypt.
Ghana and Chelsea legend Michael Essien, also a Champions League winner, is assistant manager at Nordsjaelland.
Producing young talent to sell on
The partnership between Nordsjaelland and Right To Dream has racked up massive transfer fees in recent years.
Teenage wing sensation Kameldeen Sulemana moved from the Right To Dream to Nordsjaelland in January 2020 on a five year contract.
Within 18 months the 19-year-old smashed the Danish transfer record with a €21m transfer to French top flight side Rennes this summer.
🤸🏿Pre-activation Exercise pic.twitter.com/TirKmmtNre
— Right to Dream (@right2dream) November 9, 2021
Top stars sold to Ajax and Sampdoria
In another success story Ghanaian midfielder Mohammad Kudus arrived at Nordsjaelland when 18-years-old from Right To Dream in January 2018.
After racking up more than 50 starts for Norsjaelland he was sold to Dutch giants Ajax for €9m in July last year at the age of 19.
Why can’t we do this in Scotland?
Ghanaian U20 international winger Isaac Atanga moved from Right To Dream to Norsjaelland as an 18-year-old in 2019.
Having made more than 50 starts for the Danes he joined Cincinatti in the MLS on a three-year deal in March on an international roster slot.
The FC Nordsjaelland youth academy is also paying dividends. In July last year they sold then teenage winger Mikkel Damsgaard to Sampdoria for 6.7m Euros.
The winger is regular first team starter in Serie A with Sampdoria.
Capped 17 times Damsgaard, 21, started in Group winners Denmark’s 2-0 World Cup qualifying defeat of Scotland in Copenhagen in September.
Cormack said: “Why can’t we do that in Scotland?
“The answer is one – you don’t pay that for players in Scotland, you just don’t pay it.
“And two – they are not as technically gifted as players.
“I think that is changing as in the latter part we have seen players come through.
“I know that Stephen Glass and Steven Gunn (Aberdeen’s director of football) are highly encouraged by what is coming through the Academy just now.”
The blueprint to cash in on talent
Aberdeen sold Youth Academy graduate Scott McKenna to Nottingham Forest for a club record £3m in September last year.
That figure could rise to £5m with achievable add-ons.
Striker Sam Cosgrove was also sold to Birmingham in November last year for £2m.
Aberdeen plucked Cosgrove from obscurity in landing him for just £20,000 from Carlisle United in January 2018.
As well as securing a 100 fold return on that investment Cosgrove also delivered on the pitch – scoring 47 goals in 103 games.
The need to cash in on top talent
The financial impact of the pandemic hit Aberdeen hard with operating losses of £5.19m during the 2020/21 financial year.
Despite the financial fallout of the pandemic Cormack recently said Aberdeen do not need to sell players in January.
However developing young talent to star in the first team before selling on at a premium price, is Cormack’s vision.
He said: “It’s the way at FC Nordjaelland – if it doesn’t sell players every year they are going to lose a lot of money.
“From that perspective the model is of bringing players through, giving them 100 to 150 games with Aberdeen, and monetizing that situation.
“Aberdeen were running at a £2m loss as a business back in regular times.
“So in order to do that over time you have to balance the books with player sales.
We can today confirm that after 118 first team appearances and 18 Scotland caps, @AberdeenFCYouth graduate Scott McKenna has joined @NFFC for a club record fee.
Full story 👇
— Aberdeen FC (@AberdeenFC) September 23, 2020
“Because the benefit of doing that is you are able to have your wage bill up where we have it just now.
“I still think we are the third highest payer, certainly the top four in Scotland.
“We have been able to do that.
“We sold Scott McKenna and Sam Cosgrove for club records.
“The last time we got a player for anywhere near that was Russell Anderson when he went to Sunderland.”
Investment in Academy continues
Despite the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic Cormack insists the club continue to invest heavily in the Youth Academy.
Ramsay and left-back Jack MacKenzie have both made a major impact on the first team this season.
Midfielder Dean Campbell, 20, has has made 75 first team appearances is also a Youth Academy graduate.
Cormack said: “We have actually put more money into our Academy and pathways through Covid than taken away.
“I know some other clubs that have pulled back.
“We see that as a critical piece of this.”
