Two identical twins from Rochdale have done what most football fans only dream of: turned years of shouting at children in bibs into a full-blown business empire, without needing a single UEFA licence or a proper degree.
Adam and Jack Dunkerley, who quit university after a mere two months (presumably after discovering lectures involve fewer penalty shootouts than expected), are now celebrating the launch of their second football coaching franchise, as their business Calculated Performance attempts to go from “local five-a-side dads’ army” to “national sporting powerhouse with clipboards.”
Founded in 2020 with one centre in Rochdale and a dream fuelled by Lucozade and sheer identical-twin energy, the business now operates seven centres across the North West. Between them, 38 coaches now shout “track back!” at 240 young hopefuls every week.
With backing from Innovate Stockport and something called Merseyway Innovation Centre, which sounds like a futuristic lab for developing better cones, the Dunkerley twins are aiming to scale up to 80 centres nationwide. That’s a lot of children being told to “pass it earlier” by blokes in tracksuits.
The first franchise pilot in Cheadle Hulme was apparently so successful that the head coach quit his part-time job, sparking fears that “side hustle football” may soon replace middle management altogether. The second franchise, in Liverpool, launched shortly after, and was not immediately set on fire, a promising start by all accounts.
Adam said: “Football is in our blood,” though it remains unclear whether this is a hereditary condition or just years of shin pad exposure. He added, “We always followed in our dad’s footsteps,” which in Rochdale often means either coaching football or knowing someone who once played for Bury.
Their business mentor, Naomi Timperley, described the twins as “inspirational,” which is usually code for “we weren’t expecting them to make it past five-a-side.”
With ambitious plans for a national rollout and a very real chance of one day being mistaken for a lifestyle coaching brand, Calculated Performance looks set to redefine youth football coaching, from the usual “shouty man with whistle” to “shouty franchisee with quarterly growth targets.”
Reporting from down the M62, we wish the Dunkerleys luck, mostly because they’ll need it when they hit franchise number 27 and realise half the coaches think “4-4-2” is a postcode.
