Matt Cafer on the “hidden gems” in the “very, very underrated” non-leagues of English football

What’s the difference between the Premier League and non-league football? 

Footballers at every level of the game work hard, but some stand out more than others and for former non-League goalkeeper at Bath City, Matt Cafer, it is about shining at the right moment.

Cafer explains: “You could have three amazing games and none of them [scouts] watching you and the one game that there are people there watching you, you have an absolute howler.”

One of those players who was lucky enough to get spotted was Deli Alli, who played for League One side MK Dons before his big move to Tottenham Hotspur.

Cafer says: “he [Alli] was doing exactly what he’s doing now in the Premier League as he was in League One at MK Dons so it’s not the fact that there’s not ability down there, it’s just when you get the opportunity to prove to play in the Premier League at the highest level.”

Consistency is also another key factor. Many players are able to hit thirty, forty yard screamers but are unable to produce the superb displays on a regular basis.

In some respects, a player like Alli was lucky to get the opportunity to climb out of League One and into one of the top Premier League clubs – it’s not always easy for players to prove themselves to teams higher up the tree.

This is the pyramid scale. It is much easier for players to start out at the academies of a top Premier League team than a Football League side like Alli or Cafer, who began his career at Yeovil Town’s academy.

Cafer says: “If you’re a youth team scholar at a Premier League club, if you get released after your scholarship or after a first year professional contract, you’ll simmer down to maybe Championship if you’re lucky, but if not certainly a League One club will take you without even looking at you because you’ve had that Chelsea background.”

Cafer adds: “If you were at a League One or League Two club and you don’t get given an opportunity as a pro, realistically they’re not going to be many clubs that will say if Yeovil didn’t want him, what chance is there that we’re going to want him?”

A lot of clubs who are taking players with a Premier League background are eager to snap them up without really looking at them because these players would have received a higher level of training than players at academies at clubs in the Football League.

“They’re still going to be steps ahead just from the coaching, maybe not ability-wise. That level of understanding of football is going to be a lot higher, it will just be a lot easier for them to adapt,” says Cafer.

Having recently left National League South team Bath City, Cafer is still optimistic that he can climb up a few tiers to play consistently for a League One  or League Two club within the next few of years.

Currently injured, he continues to work out regularly so he can keep himself at the same level as other footballers who are playing full-time.

However, the demands of the game in the UK are very different to the Gibraltar Premier Division where Cafer played from 2014 to 2017 for Europa FC making six appearances in the Europa League. 

Cafer explains that the Gibraltan game is based more on the Spanish style of playing: He says: “Their ideas and methods of playing are a lot more on the Spanish tiki-taka way you see Barcelona play. They love to play little circles, little rondos before training, they’re always one touch, two-touch they try to play the beautiful way of football.”

Football, however, is only part-time and Cafer pursues one of his other passions in social care as a support worker for children and says that it is a career he would like to do when he’s no longer playing football.  

He says: “You’re playing football because you love it, you’re turning up on a cold Tuesday night in the pissing rain where you finish work after a ten-hour shift.”

The non-league is also a place where some “hidden gems” or Jamie Vardys could get missed, so scouts might want to take closer note of the players in those leagues because in Cafer’s words it’s “very, very underrated.”

Featured image: Simon Howe (@yuffie_city) | Twitter