Shepparton’s Cody Kapperer to experience football heritage through SEDA’s UK Academy Tour

Kapperer, a Goulburn Valley Suns youth player and Year 11 SEDA College student, flies out on Thursday night.

Almost 24 hours later, he’ll arrive in Manchester and step onto the manicured training grounds of Manchester City, Chelsea and the English national team, where he’ll take part in academy-style sessions, exhibition matches and behind-the-scenes tours.

Not a bad experience for your first overseas jaunt.

“I’m just getting really excited for it. It's not far off now, getting stuff ready, starting to pack,” he said.

“I’ve never been overseas, so this will be something interesting to get into.

“We go to academies with different clubs and then some days we do sightseeing, so we get some free time. We go see the games and we go on some stadium tours and stuff.

“I don’t support a team at all. I’ll see who I like over there and then I’ll pick a team.”

What makes Kapperer’s journey all the more striking is how he’s earned it.

The trip costs just shy of $10,000 — money the teenager raised himself.

“Me, Mum and Dad sat down and had a chat about it,” he said.

“They said they’d love for me to go, so I worked my butt off and paid for it all myself. Just a bunch of work — that’s all I do.

“No social life any more, it’s either soccer or I’m working.”

Working as a lifeguard at Aquamoves, juggling school and chasing the round ball as part of the GV Suns’ under-19s keeps Kapperer’s plate full.

But he’s willing to make sacrifices to keep the dream alive.

He spent four years at Shepparton South, where he fell under the wing of his mentor, Michael Colmer, and as 2025 rolled around, two big decisions arose.

To further his sporting ambitions, Kapperer joined the GV Suns pathway and enrolled in SEDA College, an independent senior secondary school with a sport-angled curriculum.

And in his eyes, it’s safe to say the leap of faith paid off.

“It’s better than mainstream school — it’s all about sport, the whole curriculum’s about sport, and it just gets us as much sport in as possible,” he said.

“It helps me personally focus more because it’s about something I want to do, instead of an essay, something I don’t care about necessarily.”

Over the next fortnight, Kapperer and his fellow SEDA scholars will kick ball on the likes of Manchester City’s Etihad Campus and Chelsea’s Cobham Training Centre, both of which are worth about $400 million.

With any luck, they could experience a Premier League fan’s holy grail.

A glance at Cole Palmer, a sneak peek at Erling Haaland, rippling the net in an environment where goals are the currency – and business is booming.

From there, the group will play matches against academies and prestigious schools to test their own abilities.

There is a catch, though.

“None of us have played together before, so this will be fun,” Kapperer said with a laugh.

Kapperer isn’t heading to England with delusions of grandeur, but with a keenness to soak in what football’s heartland has to offer with the right mix of hope and humility.

Simply put, he’s pragmatic about what comes next.

“(I want to see) the overall experience of soccer over there because it’s good here, but I want to see what it’s like in the heart of it,” he said.

“It would be beautiful if I got a contract; I don’t know how that’s going to work going over there, but that would be ideal.

“But just getting the feel of it over there and how they work, and see if I can pull some things from it when I come back over here.”