Meet the hosts

Sean Conlon

Founder, We Make Footballers
& Chelsea Scout

Sean Conlon is the founder and CEO of We Make Footballers, a children's football coaching franchise. Coming from a background with Chelsea, he has built WMF around helping young players improve on and off the pitch. He shares the insight gained from coaching players from age seven through to the Premier League with parents who dream of their child making it. He also works as a Chelsea scout.

He is the creator and host of Project Footballer, a podcast that asks whether you could develop your child into a footballer by following the "perfect" formula, and how much comes down to luck, genetics or a football family. He launched it with the aim of being the voice of youth football, and in 2024 Jamie Redknapp and Paul Merson joined him as regular co-hosts. Guests have included Joleon Lescott, Harry Redknapp and Frank Lampard. Recent episodes have covered how AI and computer vision are changing the way young athletes are assessed, alongside interviews with professional players and academy insiders.

Matthew Healy

Founder, Gen Football

Matthew is the founder of Gen Football and host of Project Footballer. He brings 20 years of experience in elite youth football to developing the next generation of players.

He came through the Chelsea academy as a youth player before moving into coaching and scouting at the club. That gave him an unusually complete view of player development: he has seen it as the prospect, as the coach and as the person deciding who makes the cut. He later coached at Ajax, one of Europe's most respected academies, where he immersed himself in the Dutch approach to technical, possession-based football.

That experience is the foundation of Gen Football, which provides specialist coaching and development pathways for young players aged 3-16. Through Project Footballer, he shares insight from inside the professional game with players, parents and coaches.

Away from the pitch, Matthew has a background in the fitness and wellness industry. He brings a whole-person view of development to his coaching - strength, recovery, sleep and mindset matter as much to a young player's progress as what happens with the ball at their feet.