Jeremie Frimpong's Pathways Foundation Is Giving Released Players a Second Chance

Jeremie Frimpong grew up in a house with six siblings. Sharing was the baseline. When he made it as a professional footballer, that instinct found a bigger target.

The friends around him who did not make it were the reason he started the Pathways Foundation. People he calls brothers. Players who had poured everything into the game and then, when it ended, had nowhere obvious to go.

Pathways is built for players aged 15 to 22 who leave elite football without knowing what comes next. The foundation offers mental health support, career guidance, and real work experience in industries like tech, finance, and music. The goal is straightforward: get them into a life they can build on.

"I was lucky enough to make it, and I thought I should do something to help my friends. That's really how the idea started."

"I see anyone who's a footballer as part of my football family. I just want to help where I can," Frimpong says.

What happens after the system

The problem Pathways is built around is specific. Not players who never got close. Players who got very close. Who spent years inside elite academies, who gave the game everything, who shaped their entire identity around football. Players who then got released.

Being inside the system for years and then suddenly outside it is disorienting in ways that are hard to explain to people who have not experienced it. Unless another club picks you up immediately, the structure disappears overnight.

"If I was not a footballer right now, I would be lost. I would not know what to do. Which is why having people there who have experience in different industries and can provide guidance to young players is so helpful," the Dutch International explains.

The mental health piece sits alongside everything else because training the mind matters as much as training the body. Frimpong is direct about this.

"In the same way we have to train our bodies, we also have to train our minds. Sometimes we can get a physical injury. In the same way, we can get a mental injury if something happens which disrupts our flow. At that point, you must rehab," he says.

It is a view shared by those who work in this space professionally. Mindset coach Ana Lameiras works with players at all levels through her consultancy Creative Minds. For her, the mental side is not a supplement to development. It is part of the foundation. Her approach to building resilience starts long before a crisis arrives..

What visibility does

Jeremie Frimpong was born and raised in the Netherlands, where he first played football. Through Manchester City's academy and then Celtic, where a loan deal became something much larger. On to Bayer Leverkusen, where he grew as a player and as a person. Today, he plays for Liverpool.

Frimpong was in Manchester City's academy when Neil Lennon came for him on loan. The move changed everything. But it only happened because Lennon could see him play.

"Football is all about your eyes and what you see. Being visible and having your talent seen by the world around you can be the difference between playing locally or professionally," he says.

This is where Veo connects to the work Pathways does. Veo records matches and training sessions at clubs that previously had no footage of their players. Coaches can review sessions. Scouts can watch players they have never seen in person. Players can study themselves and understand what they are doing well and what needs work.

Frimpong spent hours as a young player kicking a ball against a wall. Controlling it, kicking it back, controlling it again. Development that looked like nothing from the outside. He knows what it means to put in work that goes unseen.

"Visually, people would have just thought I was winning. But really, I was putting in a lot of time to develop," he recalls.

Coming to Copenhagen

Zachary McConnell and Hugo Vemba from the Pathways Foundation are visiting Veo's Copenhagen headquarters for three days this month. They will see how a technology company operates, how it started, how decisions get made, and what the day-to-day work looks like from inside.

"I hope they get a new perspective. Going to a new country, going to a company like Veo. I want them to look back on the experience and think: wow, this was great for me," Frimpong says.

He is specific about what he wants them to take away.

"I want them to learn how a business like Veo operates. How it started and how they could operate if they were in a business like Veo.”

Frimpong's ambition for Pathways is straightforward. He wants to help as many young players as possible. Most professional players come from grassroots clubs. Investing properly in those clubs raises the level of every player who comes through them.

He grew up learning to share. That habit has not left him.

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