Founded in 2006, Football Star Academy aims to develop elite football players through weekly clinics and specialised one-on-one and semi-private training sessions.

Five years ago, there was only a single coaching academy but today there are 30 franchises in total and last year they received the prestigious Franchise Business of the Year award at the Optus My Business Awards.

The founder and CEO of Football Star Academy Peter Nikolakopoulos said the program will enable Australia’s best female football talent to stay within the game instead of having to work in unrelated jobs away from football.

“If you look at what the women who are currently getting paid they are not getting a lot of money to do what they love,” he said.

“To support them over time Football Star Academy are willing to employ Matildas and W-League players to provide them with coaching work within the Academy and the franchise partners throughout Australia.

“Instead of having to do waitressing work or work behind a bar, and it enables them to coach kids, so it’s good for them and good for football.

“Football Star Academy is the only organisation that does its programs all year round. So, the players can work as many hours as they want during the week across the different programs.”

Nikolakopoulos revealed the program had already been running in eastern states but will expand across the country.

“We’ve already had huge success in Sydney and in Melbourne with Sydney FC, Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne City players,” he said.

“So far it has only been those three W-League clubs, but it’s an initiative that is being provided to all W-League clubs and it will be something that is being rolled out further this year and it will be ongoing.

“The exciting thing is that part of our approach of growing the women’s game is we’ve introduced girls only programs, and having the W-League players as our coaches, you couldn’t ask for better role models for these young girls to aspire to achieve their dreams and their inspiration.”

The Matildas are currently ranked fourth in the world and participation numbers have swelled to over 250,000 and Nikolakopoulos has seen the explosion in the women’s game first hand.

“At the beginning there was always just one or two girls within the boys group,” he said.

“What we have found with the Matildas and with their success and the promotion of the W-league becoming more professional – it has really sparked the interest of young girls.

“For instance, girls not only want to play in the W-League they want to play in America or other overseas leagues.

“To do that and to try and become a Matilda they need that additional training, so Football Star Academy now has had a massive influx of girls wanting to get extra tuition and extra training to develop their game.

“In the past it wasn’t that way. They just wanted to have fun. They didn’t really have any vision and didn’t really worry about where they wanted to get to.

“But today’s youngsters see a Sam Kerr, and as the opportunities have opened up for them, Football Star is doing their bit to help as many girls as possible follow their dreams.”