Walton & Hersham were on their knees before a group of teenagers made the mad decision to acquire the club in 2019 – now, with the help of the ‘Non-league Erling Haaland’, they’re targeting the National League
Dean Jones
NON-LEAGUE NEWS
Calogero Scannella was 19 years old when he first texted his mates about buying a football club.
It took a bit of convincing, but now Walton & Hersham – who will play in the English pyramid’s seventh tier next season – have the youngest owners in the world and are creating a media buzz unlike anything else in the game. They have amassed more than a million TikTok followers and established a fanbase touching every corner of the globe, with thousands tuning in each matchday.
“We deluded ourselves into thinking we knew what we were getting ourselves into, but we actually had no clue,” Scannella tells FFT. “Luckily it’s going pretty well, but every six months we’ll have a chat and say, ‘How the hell have we managed this?’”
It’s taken dedication, desire and countless unpaid hours, but the Swans are flying: they secured a third promotion on the spin by winning April’s play-off final against Hamworth Villa, and global viewings of single matches have reached a peak of 300,000. This was a club staring at extinction only four years ago, but thanks to a group of teenagers with lofty ambitions and a nothing-to-lose mentality, the sky’s the limit.
“We had to be mad to think it would go anywhere,” says Scannella. “If we were 50 we wouldn’t have had the energy to do it. We’ve used age to our advantage.”
Scannella, club secretary and director of football, is aided by Sartej Tucker, Thomas Bradbury and Jack Newton, with Reme Edetanlen, Stephan Karidis and Ben Madelin no longer part of the original party of pals to buy the club (bottom left).
They have known each other since school but now, aged 23, are living out a fantasy at odds with those of most men their age. So, how has this happened?
“It was boredom, not knowing what to do in my life,” reflects Scannella in the boardroom of the club’s stadium in Surrey, on the banks of the River Thames. “I was at this point where I’d moved to university in London and it was everything I didn’t want from life.
“I was doing theoretical physics, living in halls away from home, and I just knew it wasn’t what I wanted. I decided to drop out – but I needed an escape route or my parents would kill me.”
His life-changing idea was born at a game against AFC Hayes at the end of 2018. “I was applying for jobs but also coming to watch Walton,” he says. “That was one
